Blazing Darkness
by Crazy Taco
Summary: Diego knows he is a bit different but that has never stopped him from doing anything normal so when he finally starts his journey he trusts it's going to be 'normal' but nothing is ever that easy. With gym battles, rivals and some crazy people all wearing the same thing stuff, I guess things just aren't going to be 'normal'.
1. Prologue

"I got another one!" exclaimed the young boy as there was a rough tug on his fishing rod.

"That's what you last time and that was a rotten boot" the other boy sighed.

"This one feels like a big one" the first boy said through gritted teeth "It better a Barboach and not another blasted Magikarp".

The other boy burst into laughter at his best friends attempt at swearing, "Is that the best attempt at a… HOLY CRAP!" he yelled as the tiny boat lurched dangerously to the side, "what was that?"

"See! I told you, now stop crying like a girl and help me get this one on the boat" yelled the boy.

"Are you Insane?! This things gonna kill us if we bring it on board, Red!" The other boy yelled back getting soaked by a rogue wave, "CRAP THE WATERS FREEZING".

"STOP WHINING AND HELP, DIEGO!" Red screamed as the boat lurched again throwing him to the bottom of the boat "SHIT".

"Screw this!" screamed Diego as he grabbed hold of the flailing rod "let's get this bastard". Both boys wrapped themselves around the rod and began fighting against the strain on the other end of the line. "You work the reel, I'll pull the rod" Diego said straining against the pressure on the hook.

"Well it certainly isn't a Magikarp" Red said jokingly, almost losing his grip on the reel. "Well no shit, genius, it's probably a Sharpedo or a Crawdaunt!" Diego said before yelping as the rod ripped at his hands "what are we gonna do with it, we have no Pokémon to battle it with or any pokéballs to capture it."

"All goods we'll get Wattson to take it out" Red smiled through clenched teeth.

Diego gave a sly smile, "sounds like a plan, ready…1…2…3…hea…HOLY STARYU", all a sudden the rod when slack causing both boys to fall back into the hull of the boat with a load 'THUD'.

"Ahhhh, what happened?" Red groaned slowly coming back to reality, holding his head as bump slow took hold. "Looks like our prize catch got loose" Diego simply stated as he heaved himself off the hull, "looks like we won't be getting any incredibly over powered water Pokémon today"

"I would not say that" something grumbled from behind the boys. Both boys cautiously turned around to reveal a water drenched Gyarados. The water dribbled off each scale causing water to rain down on the area surrounding the huge blue beast.

"Holy shit that thing is gigantic" Red exclaimed. Even Diego had to admit that this Gyarados was bigger than the others that he'd seen and all they could see was the top half of the titan.

"I would prefer if you didn't use such foul language especially for such a young creature" the Gyarados rumbled.

Red nudged Diego "What did it say?" "It told you to stop swearing, dick biscuit" Diego whispered back.

"That includes you too" it growled at Diego, slapping its tail against the water, obviously getting angry about being ignored, "why did you wake me from my slumber?"

"Ahhhh you swallowed our hook so we tried to pull you up, we thought you were a Magikarp" Diego replied. "What did it say?" Red asked Diego, "it asked why we woke it up" Diego replied, starting to get angry about the fact that only he could understand the Gyarados. "Tell it we didn't mean to" Red whispered, "I did" Diego growled.

"You can understand me? No human can do that" the Gyarados asked confused. "Ah I'm not human" Diego replied scratching the back of his head, "I'm the guardian" Diego's voice strengthened as he said this raising his chin to look the monster in the eye. He'd always been proud of this fact that made him like no other thing on the planet. Suddenly the Gyarados' eyes filled with rage and anger, "WHAT!" it roared, "I HAVE ONLY BEEN BESTED IN BATTLE ONCE AND THAT WAS BY A GUARDIAN!" "What did you say?!" Red said turning on his friend.

"No time to argue, start rowing as fast as you can, NOW!" Diego yelled as the Gyarados began throwing itself into a rage fuelled rampage causing waves to begin violently rocking the boat. "Shitshitshitshitshit" Red said as he grabbed hold of the oars and tried furiously to paddle away. Diego had given up on trying to calm the beast down and began focusing on getting the little outboard motor onto the back of the boat and getting it started, "Eureka!" Diego shouted as the motor buzzed to life "pull in the oars 'cos we're outta here" Diego shouted to Red. "NO YOU DON'T" the Gyarados screamed as the boys buzzed away as fast as the motor would let them, firing off a Dragon Rage at where the boys had been once causing a tower of water to explode upwards. "HOLY CRAP THAT THINGS REALLY PISSED OFF WITH YOU" Red shouted over the impact of another Dragon Rage. "Thanks for that, captain obvious! WATTSON!" Diego shouted for the man sun bathing on the shore of the waterway. "WATTSON! WATTSON!" Red shouted trying to wake the middle aged man.

"Wha…what, ah boys it's good to see both of you ok… what Is That THING?!" Wattson shouted to the boys, who were still about 150m from shore, as he caught sight of the monster following the boys. "IT'S A GYARADOS! CAN YOU GET RID OF IT BEFORE IT KILLS US?!" Red shouted to Wattson.

"Ah sure, Let's Do This Manectric" Wattson said as there was a burst of light and a roar revealing a fully grown Manectric, "Okay Manectric let's try a Thunder, trying to hit the Gyarados by the way". As the boys got within 100m of the shore there was a sudden earsplitting 'crack' as a charge of thunder hit the Gyarados behind them, "Whoa that looked bad-ass" exclaimed Red, "too bad you didn't see it". "This really isn't time to be joking about, get ready we're about to" 'CRACK' "Whoa, how is that thing still coming?!" Diego yelled as he turned and saw a electrified Gyarados still following them towards the shore "Hit it again Wattson!". As Wattson saw the blue titan still following the boys, "okay than hit it again Manectric, Full Power!", "Oh we're screwed" whispered Red. "Stop Panicking and Get Ready to Jump out and Run for Cover" Diego yelled at Red as they got within 50m of the shore line. As the shore seemed reachable Diego fully opened up the throttle, "Here we go" he whispered to himself as the boat started running over rocks and sand. Then a crack that seemed to shake the earth itself was heard as Wattson's Manectric discharged the super powered Thunder striking the Gyarados directly on the crown of its head. There was an earsplitting cry as the beastly Gyarados fell to the water, unconscious. As the boys hit the shore at full speed, they were flung out of the boat and onto the sand, where they lay for a couple of minutes recovering from the recent events. When they decided that they should probably move Diego was the first to stand up, "From now on we're only fishing in lakes near home not bloody waterway routes, okay" he said with a groan. Red agreed with a grunt as Wattson approached them "well it seems you two had a good afternoons fishing" he said before breaking into a loud, booming laughter "come on then you two let's get you back Littleroot before your mothers start calling" as both boys groan at the perspective of more travelling Wattson burst into another round of hysterics.

**Thanks for reading.**

**I just got some things to clear up; first off thanks to Kiki's Writing Service for the review, it really helped,  
**

**the story is set in the manga universe with a few changes to fit the story with my characters.**

**Hope you all keep reading**


	2. Chapter 1

_5 years later._

Sunlight burnt through Diego's eyelids as he slowly returned to conciseness. The first thought that flowed through his mind was '_why is there sunlight at 6am in early spring?' _As he slowly opened his eyes the world around him gradually came into focus revealing a medium sized room filled with his stuff and junk. Old Pokémon stuffed toys sat on top of a wooden wardrobe gathering dust, music and Pokémon posters lined the walls of the bedroom and clothes lined the floor and desk tossed carelessly. As Diego slowly righted himself on his bed he started looking around for any evidence of the alarm he had set on his Pokénav. After failing to find it from the comfort of his bed he decided to get up and look for it. After a few moments of anxious searching he found his Pokénav sitting on a pile t-shirts, true confusion came when Diego tried to turn it on only to find it unresponsive "hah, strange it can't be outta battery I put it on the recharger last night, didn't I?" Diego said to himself growing more confused. After moments of staring at the died Pokénav trying to figure out what when wrong Diego finally decided to head into the kitchen to find the time out. Instead of getting fully dressed Diego simply walked into the downstairs hallway, which separated his room from the lounge and the downstairs toilet, in his boxers. As he walked past the sliding doors which lead to the yard and in turn to the Daycare, that his family ran, he heard a conversation in the kitchen: "I wonder what starter Diego picked?".

"Who knows, he probably got a water type like a Mudkip or a Piplup".

"Nah, I bet he got a grass type most likely Treecko".

"meh, who cares what he chooses but I still can't believe he left without telling anyone".

'_Oh shit that isn't a good sign that their up' _Diego thought to himself as he rounded the corner leading to the kitchen catching sight of his two older siblings, "what are guys doing up at 6 in the morning? You don't usually wake up until midday" Diego said to them.

"oh well we thought we would get up early and say goodbye to you but what are you still doing here in your boxes?".

"And it's not 6, it's more like 9:30" they replied.

"WHAT!" Diego exclaimed as he sprinted over to the closest clock, which just so happened to be the microwave, "Oh fuck" Diego muttered to himself "I'm so late" Diego yelled as he vaulted over the counter, sprinting to his room, grabbing the nearest t-shirt and sprinted thorough the door, which was being held open by his older brother, while struggling to pull the t-shirt over his head.

"Run Diego, Run" his sister yelled from the door before bursting into laughter at Diego's misfortune, but he didn't hear this because he was already at top speed as he blasted down the street heading towards Professor Birch's lab.

By the time Diego got to the first turn he was moving way to fast to turn causing him to slide out of control and crash into a sidewalk bench ripping the bottom of his feet to shreds as he slid. As he recovered he pulled himself off the ground and continued the charge towards the lab completely ignoring his feet. As he ran Diego stopped feeling his feet and the ground altogether, when he glanced down he saw that his feet weren't even making contact with the ground and as he rounded another corner, this time maintaining his upright position, he saw why; his soles were completely engulfed with black fire, "god I love being the Guardian" he said to himself. As he saw Professor Birch's laboratory he accelerated to his true top speed as sprinted on the final stretch. When he was about 200m from the lab he realized that he was traveling way too fast so he began slowing down until he entered the lab at a gentle jog. "PROFESSOR? PROFESSOR IT'S DIEGO" he yelled as he closed the front door.

"Ah Diego it's good to see you, um a little more than I would like to see" Prof. Birch said indicating to Diego's lack of pants.

"oh well, ah kind of a rushed morning" he said apologetically scratching the back of his head, a gesture he had inherited from Red.

"That's quite alright, I have similar parts down there, just bigger" Birch joked breaking into a big grin, Diego couldn't help but smiling too. "So I presume you're here to get your starter?".

"YES, oh I mean yeah" Diego said quietly.

"Don't worry about the energy I've saw the same with the other 12 kids".

"ah actually we're teenagers" Diego interrupted.

"ha, I guess so since you are 13. Anyway about your starter I have some bad news" Birch said as Diego's face grew full of fear and worry, "you see Diego, ah how do I put this, this morning there was, ah, 12 new trainers that came in for starters and, um, there's no more starters left for you".

"what?" Diego said quietly as he began to panic.

"You see I tried to save one for you, any, but when all of them came I couldn't hide one, I'm sorry but there's none left, first in first served".

"You mean I can't get a starter" Diego said even quieter than before.

Prof. Birch simple nodded not sure what to do as he saw the boy, that he had seen grow up, collapse from within knowing that it would take at least 2 weeks for another starter to reach Littleroot. _'What can I say? What can I do? This kid_ _has grown up around Pokémon all his life' _he thought to himself as he watched Diego collapse into a nearby chair just as an idea began growing in his head, " ah, Diego you wouldn't happen to have any newly hatched orphans at the Daycare, would you?" he asked.

"Yeah, a bunch actu…" Diego said breaking off mid sentence as he realized what the Professor was implying, breaking into a smile.

"I think we should pay your house a visit, don't you?".

* * *

A few minutes when by, as Diego when over all the possible starters he could have but all he could think of was a Cubone and a Slugma, as he and Prof. Birch walked towards the Daycare. When they finally arrived Diego had worked himself into a state with the thought of a second chance, as he lead the Professor to the backyard/actual Daycare. They found two Mightyenas sitting on the porch, the helper at the Daycare, "hey, could you two round up all the orphans about level 5?" Diego asked the two as they trotted up to him after a pair of 'yes' they belted off the find the goal. After a minute or so here was 3 candidates lined up in front of Diego, the Professor, Diego's mum, dad and older siblings, who had came out to see who Diego chose. After another 5 minutes, 10 Pokémon stood in front of them: a Sableye, a Venonat, an Electrike, a Seel, a Lotad, a Rattata, a Hoothoot, a Growlithe, a Pinsir and a Sandshrew.

"Well this appear to be the choices" Birch announced eyeing all the possible starters that Diego could choose from, thinking about his own daughter and what she would choose.

"Umm ahh which should I choose?" Diego asked as he looked father for guidance.

"It up to you, son, whichever one you choose I know that you that you will excel with 'cos that what your like" he replied, resting a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder "plus their all pretty good, especially that Rattata, can get pretty strong after a little time" he said jokingly.

Many thoughts ran wild through Diego's head making his decision harder and harder. "Ahh I guess I'll take the…" he started as his eyes swept over the partners, all a sudden his eyes fell on the Growlithe which sparked a memory, he'd been there for its birth and been raising it up for it to be released into the wild but he'd developed a slight bond with it, "I choose the Growlithe" he announced crouching down as it ran towards him. "_Thanks_" he heard it whisper.

"So a Growlithe, ah, if that's what you want. Here, this is your Pokédex" Birch said holding out a version I Pokédex to Diego.

"Ah, thanks, how do I work it?" Diego asked. A few minutes later Diego had slightly mastered the complex encyclopedia, "um it's asking me if I want to give Growlithe a nickname, what do I do?" he asked Prof. Birch, finished putting in Growlithe's data.

"Well do you want him to have a nickname, you know make him an individual" he replied. "Yeah course, um?" Diego said slightly confused looking down at his new partner, "I got it; Inferno wait no, just Ferno you'll have to earn your 'In'" he said crouching down to rub Ferno's head, "_I like it_" Ferno said to Diego making him smile with joy.

"Alright, enough mucking around, Diego, time for you to go" a voice said behind him. Turning round he saw his parents standing in the doorway to their kitchen with his pack at their feet, "your clothes is up in your room, that is if you don't want to wear that for your journey" his mum said laughing at the fact that Diego was still in a t-shirt and boxers. He laughed as he ran pass his parents heading for his room followed by an energetic Ferno, eager to get started.

A few minutes later Diego stood facing Professor Birch and his parents wearing a pair of grey running shoes, which he'd gotten 3 months earlier, a pair of dark green tracksuit bottoms, a blue t-shirt under a zip up red hoodie, and a dark gray cap, which pretty much hid his short brown hair. "You look wonderful, honey" his mother said cooing over his look, "I have to agree with that" his father smiled handing Diego this backpack, which contain the minimal amount of stuff: his sleeping bag, a spare t-shirt, 3 pairs of boxers, a towel, deodorant, a plastic knife and spork, his hunting knife and an extra bag. _It's surprisingly light but_ _I guess there's not in it yet _Diego thought as he pulled the straps over his shoulders. Once he was done adjusting the pack he smiled at the people in front of him, "I expect to hear great things about you two" Prof. Birch said, "Good luck son do the family name proud" his father said patting his son's shoulder, "If you ever, and I mean _ever_, want to come home, you're welcome to come back, okay" his mum said pulling him it to a hug. After holding onto Diego for what felt forever for him see eased away from him, "you think after 2 kids I would be better at this" she muttered as her eyes became damp, "it okay mum, I'll be back" Diego said smiling at his parents. "_Come on let's get this started_" Ferno barked becoming impatient, "okay let's start this then" Diego smiled down at Ferno. He waved goodbye to his parents, turned on his heels and walked through the gate just to make it 5 steps before being stopped; "Diego wait" his sister yelled as she ran through the front door, "I think you forgot something" she said holding out his Pokénav, "fully charged and ready to go. Oh yea, good luck" she said pulling him into a hug. "Thanks" Diego replied pulling lose. He turned once again on his heels and began jogging in the direction of Route 101, grinning like a Looney. "Here we go" he whispered to himself as Ferno barked next to him.


	3. Chapter 2

"So Ferno, do you like the plan; head to Oldale town, stock up on supplies, head to Petalburg and go traveling to one of the other regions" Diego stated to Ferno, "we might even travel with someone to, that is if she wants to" he said glancing down, thinking about his possible traveling partner.

"_Who is she?" _Ferno asked looking up at his trainer,

"Oh, well I guess you'll just have to wait and see who she is" Diego joked as they round a clump of trees suddenly started by a cry "huh, what was that" Diego said glancing down at Ferno who simple shrugged as they started to walk in the direction of the noise. After a minute of wandering around aimlessly looking for the source of the noise they gave up,

"_I guess it was a screaming Wurmple_" Ferno joked as they got back onto the path leading towards Oldale town.

* * *

The sun had began its decent from midday when the duo reached the outer boundary of Oldale town, "look at that Oldale town and it only took us about 4 hours to get here" Diego said, finally breaking the comfortable silence the two had been walking in, resting his hands on the back of his head, before starting to scratch vigorously at the base of his skull.

"_Looks pretty impressive" _Ferno said in complete amazement, as he'd never seen past the gates of the Daycare, his eyes wide with wander causing Diego to laugh as he started down the slight decline leading into the city centre,

"Well then let's go see the spectacular sights of the grand metropolis that is Oldale town before we turn in for the night, ahh?" Diego laughed as Ferno ran to catch up with his trainer. As they got closer to the centre of town they passed an array of parks with flower arrangements, which Ferno took it upon himself to sniff each one in turn, an alignment of stores until they walked past a Pokémon center. "Hold up" Diego said stopping midstride, "I should probably heal you up after those intense battles" he smiled sarcastically, referring to the several Wurmple and Zigzagoon battles they'd had together.

"_Those weren't battles, they me dealing out pain_" Ferno snarled obviously not getting the sarcasm,

"Whatever you say Mr. Badass Growlithe" Diego laughed as they stepped through the automatic door of the Pokècenter.

"Welcome to the Oldale Pokémon center, what can I do for you today?" the nurse asked as the duo approached the main desk,

"Ah yeah, could you heal up my Growlithe?" Diego asked,

The nurse sighed and rolled her eyes before replying, "Oh course we can do that, this is after all a Pokècenter where people heal Pokémon" she said with the fakest smile on her slightly tanned face.

"_What's her problem?" _Ferno snorted,

Diego couldn't help but think the same thing, "Anyway, this is my first time doing this so I'm not exactly sure what the process is" Diego confessed,

"Oh course it is" she said before adding "just my luck", "what was that?" Diego inquired although he had heard it, "oh nothing, I was just saying that the process is very easy and could be simply taken care of, all you have to do is go wait at the chairs" she instructed indicated to a row of white plastic chairs.

After glancing at the chairs then at a worried looking Ferno, Diego replied "I think I should probably be there for his first time in a… a whatdayacallit",

"if that's what you want sir" she said leading the confused duo through a set of swinging doors leading to the back of the center, they passed a couple doors as they walked along a white corridor until she abruptly stopped outside of the 4th door, almost making Diego walk straight into her. "Here we are this is where we will be healing your Growlithe" she stated as she pushed open the white door revealing a simply room with a hospital bed, a set of white cabinets, a desk and a couple of chairs, which were surprisingly not white but a grey colour. As they followed her through the door they were hit with an overpowering stench of disinfectant causing Diego to give a little cough, "just put him up on the bed" the nurse instructed as she walked over to cabinets,

"_What is she gonna do Diego?" _Ferno said as fear crept into his voice watching the nurse pull a bunch of wires and pads out of the cabinets.

"I'm not sure but I'll be right here if you need me, okay" Diego whispered to Ferno feeling the Growlithe relax as he hauled him onto the bed.

"Okay then this won't hurt at all in fact it'll make you feel better" she said as she began placing pads onto Ferno in a variety of places. Diego finally had a chance to take a proper look at the nurse; she had shoulder length blonde hair that framed here tan face, Diego couldn't see her eyes because she was looking down at a machine; she wore a pink dress that was covered by a cream coloured apron that when down to her knees revealing a pair of tanned, toned calves which disappeared into a pair of white plumps, all together she was pretty hot but Diego didn't even think about trying something mainly because she looked about 19 and he was 13.

"All done" she announced,

"Huh" Diego said having his daydream shattered as he realized that both the nurse and Ferno were staring at him, "oh yea, thanks" he stammered while she pulled all the pads off of Ferno. "How was that?" Diego asked Ferno,

"_Nothing I can't handle_" he replied. The trio exited the room and walked into the main reception,

"Ah where's the nearest Pokémart?" Diego asked the nurse,

"Just a few blocks left of here" she replied.

All of sudden a bearded man jumped out in front of Diego and Ferno, "hey you, you want to learn an amazingly awesome move?" he said enthusiastically,

"Ah, I'm good" Diego said slightly put off by the weird man "plus it probably something like splash or explosion" he said as he began walking away,

"But it's not, it's Dragon Claw" he stated causing Diego to stop mid stride,

"All I have is a Growlithe and they can't learn Dragon Claw" Diego said turning to face the man,

"I'll be the judge of that" He said grabbing Ferno and examining him causing both Diego and Ferno to look mortified "Ahhhh…ha, yeah quite a unique Growlithe you have here. He can learn my gift" the man said simply placing Ferno back on the ground "I wouldn't pass up an offer like this one".

Diego crouched down to comfort Ferno "how do I know you're legitimate?" Diego asked,

"You know of Drake, of the Elite Four?" Diego nodded, "I was the one who taught his Shelgon Dragon Claw" the man stated.

After a moment to consider this fact Diego turned to Ferno; "if you're up for this we can do it, it's either this or sightseeing?" he said, Ferno looked down at the floor before looking back at Diego and nodding with determination. "Okay then" Diego said,

"Alright then, follow me" the man said, turning on his heels and heading towards the automatic doors.

* * *

Diego looked up towards the sky to see that it had turned into a blazing series of gold, oranges and blues. _Damn it's almost sunset, how long have we been out here?_ Diego thought to himself,

"O_i, concentrate would ya"_ a voice growled at him from below,

"Sorry mate just checking the time. Okay let's try it once more" Diego said to Ferno.

"Now remember you need a raw emotion to fuel the attack" the bearded man shouted from where he was standing 10m away, the duo nodded,

"okay, Ferno use Dragon Claw" Diego commanded as Ferno began charging at a wooden block, that was the target 15m away, after about 7m Ferno let out a roar as his front paws became engulfed in a multicoloured fire. As him continue his charge at the target the fire began spreading up his legs until his whole forelegs were covered by the flame, a meter from the target he leapt at it swiping at it then landing on the other side of it. "Great work" Diego shouted as he jogged towards Ferno, as he approached the target he noticed three gashes that were ablaze with the fire "huh, impressive" he noted as Ferno walked up beside him, his legs now back to normal,

"_Yeah it is, isn't it"_ he barked happily as the man came walking up from behind,

"Ah I see my job here is done" he simply stated before scratching his back and groaning.

"What? Are we done?" Diego asked confused

"Yes, your Growlithe has successfully learnt Dragon Claw thus I am done" the man said before turning and walking back towards town. Diego shouted "thanks" to the man's shadow before getting jumped on by Ferno, collapsing to the ground and began wrestling with him. After a couple of minutes of mucking around Diego finally stood up and brushed all the grass and dirt off his clothes,

"Alright it's 6:30 so we should probably go set up camp for the night, what do you think?" Diego said checking his Pokénav, Ferno simply barked in agreement too tired after the training to do much else. Diego walked over to where he had thrown down his bag before the training had begun, picked it up and began walking towards the outskirts of the town. After 15 minutes of walking they reached a tree that looked big enough to shelter them, "this place looks as good as any" Diego said pulling the straps of his bag off his back and placing it on the ground "so what do you fancy for dinner?",

"_Ah, anything that can fill me up_" Ferno groaned as he rolled onto the ground next to the bag making Diego laugh,

"Well I only got one thing anyway; meat and some rice, we'll have to cook it ourselves though. I'll go gather some firewood, you stay here and 'guard' the stuff" he said wandering off into the forest with only a groan from Ferno as a reply. He returned five minutes later with an armful of dead wood to find that Ferno was missing "Ferno, Ferno where are you?" he yelled becoming progressingly nervous.

"_Why are you shouting I was just over there" _Ferno said wandering into the clearing "_by the way I wouldn't go near that third shrub there I did something that you would not want to step in_" he barked smiling sheepishly,

"oh that's gross" Diego remarked screwing up his face "couldn't of you go further away" to which Ferno simply shrugged "anyway I got the firewood" he said dumping it on the ground then crouching down to sort it into a pyramid,

"_How are you gonna light it?_" Ferno asked,

"With Fire" Diego said, clicking, making his index finger begin to burn with a black flame "Guardian style" then he pointed at the pyramid and causing a jet of black fire to hit it, lighting it with a black flame. "Go grab the meat would you" Diego asked Ferno,

"_Where is it?_"

"In the bag front pocket, I think". After Ferno pulled the plastic bag containing the strips of steak out of the bag, Diego skewered them on a few thin sticks and set them to cook on the fire, and then he grabbed the pack of ready cooked rice and began putting it on plates, that he'd bought before leaving Littleroot. After letting the meat cook for about 15 minutes Diego pulled them off the sticks and began dividing it evenly between Ferno and his plates.

"_Mmm smells good_" Ferno commented as he took a sniff of the meal,

"Course it does, I can cook awesomely" Diego smiled.

After both of them had both finished their meals, Diego put the plates at the edge of the clearing for any wild Pokémon and began setting up his bed for the night.

"_What are you gonna use for a pillow?_" Ferno yawned,

"Ahhhh… that's an excellent question… oh wait I have that spare bag, I can just stick my clothes in there for a pillow" Diego said before being infected by Ferno's yawn, Ferno simply grunted in reply. "Well its 9:30 and there's nothing to do so might as well get some shut eye, we got a lot of travelling to do tomorrow, I wanna reach Petalburg before sunset tomorrow" Diego said while striping down to his boxer, which he slept in. After there was no response from the Growlithe Diego turned to see him standing rigid, watching a bush 10 meters away. All a sudden the bush burst apart and a small creature came rushing towards Diego, "What The?!" Diego said before the bush erupted with 3 Poochyena jumping out,

"_Where'd it go?_" the biggest growled,

"_Look! There it is, behind that human" _other growled. All a sudden the three Poochyena were baring their teeth at Diego and Ferno causing both of them to instinctively growl back,

"You ready for a fight Ferno?" Diego said to which Ferno simply barked, "Okay then let's do this" Diego said to himself, moving into a fighting stance as he felt something quiver against his back leg making look down to reveal the little thing clinging to his leg causing Diego to frown.

"_Heads up_" Ferno warned allowing Diego to turn and see a Poochyena jump at him, at that instance Diego's instincts kicked in making him swing a right hook that connected with the Poochyena ribs, as it landed, it yelped before getting up and running off to one of it companions, which had been taken out by Ferno before Diego had realized.

At that moment the biggest Poochyena decide to charge at Ferno, "Ferno, use Dragon Claw!" Diego shouted before he realized it. As Ferno charged at the remaining Poochyena his paws became engulfed in the multi coloured, Diego watched as he made contact with the brute which ended in a pained yelp and the Poochyena falling to the ground, Ferno simply turned to the two standing Poochyena and let loose a strong, aggressive roar causing them to scamper into the undergrowth, making Diego smile until he caught sight of the brute slowly getting up and limping into the undergrowth, defeated. While Ferno walked back to Diego, his head held high, Diego crouched down to see what the little creature clinging to his leg was. Diego saw that it was a short, white Pokémon with brownish green hair and two weirdly coloured appendages protruding from its head and some kind of white tail, "huh, what are you" Diego said confused as he reached down to touch the Pokémon but as his fingers brushed its head it squealed and shrank away from him but still didn't let go of his leg. "Heyheyhey, its okay I'm not gonna hurt you, nothing's gonna hurt you" Diego whispered reassuringly to it "I just want to know what you are".

"_It okay he's not gonna hurt you, his one of the good ones"_ Ferno said from beside Diego, as Diego tried to reach down to touch the little creature again it just put its head down and stared at Diego bare feet, as Diego brushed his hand against the Pokémon's hair he saw that the brown parts started to move to reveal a green underneath.

"Its dirt" he said "Ferno go grab the drink bottle out of my bag" while Ferno grabbed the water Diego tried to gently remove the dirt from the green hair while reassuring the little creature; "it's okay, I'm gonna get you all clean so that we can know what you are, okay?". When Ferno finally arrived back with the water Diego simply wet his hand and began gently wiping the Pokémon's head with it, "there doesn't that feel better" he soothed as dirt ran off the Pokémon's head. When he finished cleaning its hair he wet his hand again and brushed it against one of the appendages when it squealed and dropped down to the ground with a 'thud', letting go of his leg for a second before grabbing it again whimpering, "it's okay I'm not going to hurt you" he soothed as he began wiping the appendage again revealing a pinkish red colour where ever the dirt was removed. After a couple minutes of cleaning, Diego finally had the little Pokémon clean. As he moved back, careful not to move his right foot, he saw the creature in its true form "so you're a Ralts" he observed looking at the little white Pokémon its green hair and horns now clean,

"_What's a Ralts?" _Ferno asked,

"It's a psychic type, native to Hoenn" Diego informed reaching for his Pokédex that lay next to his clothes nearby "here it says: 'The horns on its head provide a strong power that enable it to sense people's emotions'",

"_So what are we gonna do with it?_" Ferno asked,

"Well we can't leave it alone, those Poochyena might come back so we'll have to look after it, at least for tonight" Diego said "hey, if you want to stay with us tonight we'll protect you, nod if you agree" Diego asked the Ralts. After a few moments it finally nodded its head, "okay but you have to let go of my foot" Diego said as he began to pry its arms from around his ankle "Ferno go grab one of the plates with the most leftovers on it" he instructed as he picked up the Ralts and walked back over to his sleeping bag. A few minutes later the Ralts was feed and Diego was sitting up in his sleeping bag "where do you want to sleep you guys?" he asked Ferno and the Ralts. Ferno walked over and curled up against Diego's side, after a moment or two the Ralts wandered over and stood beside him as he sorted out his pillow and lay down, getting comfortable, before the Ralts climbed up onto his chest and lay there as Diego gently breathed. "Good night you two" he said as he padded Ferno before closing his eyes, he was asleep within 5 minutes.


	4. Chapter 3

Diego began to returning to conciseness as his subconscious woke him to find out why his inhaling of breath had become slightly harder. As Diego's eyes began to open, against their own will, the world above him slowly improved from the blobs of green, blue and white to outlines of trees, the sky and two clouds. "Muhh" he moaned as he slowly raised his head to investigate the problem only to see a pair of red, piercing eyes staring back at him, all he could do was groan before the eyes were covered by dome of green stranded hair. _Why is there a Ralts on my chest?_ He thought to himself before the events of last night came flooding back, "oh that's right" he murmured.

"_Diego are you awake?_" something grumbled to the left of him.

"Yeah I'm up Ferno" Diego said as he felt the Growlithe wriggle out from underneath his right arm, which had trapped him over the night. "Could you check on our visitor and see if it's alright? oh and tell it to get off me so I can get up" he whispered but as he finished the question he felt the weight on his chest shift and slide off to his left side, "or it could get off itself, that works too" he said as he sat up in his sleeping bag before stretching and groaning. "So how did everyone sleep?" Diego asked the two Pokémon.

"_Great, and now I'm raring to get to Petalburg_" Ferno barked excitably. When there was no other response Diego turned to see the Ralts standing a step away from where Diego had slept simply looking down at the ground causing him to frown,

"What about you?" Diego asked the silent Pokémon to which its reply was a simple foot movement. "Hmm" Diego grunted

"_You know you can talk to him_" Ferno barked from beside Diego. After a minute of staring at the Ralts the two shrugged and turned back towards the bag.

"_My mother told me not to talk to humans"_ a quiet voice came from behind them, one which only Ferno heard and understood, making him turn and look at the Ralts.

"_This one's not human, his different"_ Ferno barked indicating at Diego.

"Who's different?" Diego asked Ferno as he heard Ferno's statement.

"_It spoke, it said it doesn't talk to humans" _Ferno replied

"Ahhhh" Diego said turning towards the Ralts, "so it does speak" he simply stated as he looked into those piercing, red eyes again but this time the Ralts didn't turn away, instead returning his stare. "Hm, well now that you speak why don't we ask you some questions" Diego said, "let's start with a simple one: are you a boy or a girl?"

"Ralts" the Ralts replied.

"Ah, what did you say?" Diego asked confused.

"Ralts" it repeated "Ral Ralts"

Diego was seriously confused "why can't I understand you?" he said, "you're only a psychic type. Wait! That's it you're a psychic type, I've never absorbed a psychic type before that why I can't understand you" he exclaimed throwing up his arms, relief flooding over him.

"_Ahh you okay?"_ Ferno asked slightly confused.

"Yeah I'm good it's just that you're gonna have to be a translator for a little while. Anyway, what gender is it?" Diego asked turning to face Ferno.

"_It's a girl_" Ferno replied

"Okay then, second question: do you want to stay with us or return to where you came from, where ever that is?" Diego asked turning back to look at the Ralts.

After a few minutes of waiting for the Ralts to make up its mind Diego turned back to continue packing away while Ferno continued to wait for the response. He was just putting his makeshift pillow bag away when he heard a reply. Instead of turning to the Ralts he simply looked at Ferno.

"_It said that it is thankful for what we did for it last night and that it has been separated from its clan for several weeks so its decided that it is probably safest with us"_ Ferno said looking up at Diego.

"Is that a yes?" Diego said to the Ralts, confused about the answer. The Ralts simply nodded. A smile grew on Diego's face until it swallowed his whole face "alright then, welcome to the family" he smiled before walking up to the Ralts and pulling it into a hug. After letting the Ralts back down to the ground Ferno walked up and licked her on the face making her blush and Diego to laugh. "Alright lovebirds, lets finish up here and head back into Oldale to stock up on supplies and get a Pokéball for our new member" Diego said heaving himself to a standing position.

* * *

The sun was just passing over the eastern building skyline as the trio wandered towards the Pokémart in Oldale town. Ferno walked to the left on Diego while the Ralts sat on Diego's shoulder bouncing up and down as he walked. "I need to think up of a name for you Ralts" Diego said as he pushed open the door of the Pokémart, "let's think ahh…. You're a psychic type so I need a psychic name"

"Good morning, what can I do for you today?" the man behind the counter said interrupting Diego's thoughts.

"Ah yeah, could I get a couple of potions and pokéballs" Diego said walking up to and leaning on the counter.

"How much would you like exactly?" the clerk asked.

"Ah, 5 of each thanks" Diego replied.

"Okay then" the clerk said before rushing off to the back of the shop to grab the supplies. "That will be $150" he said when he came back to the counter.

"Oh, that's quite a bit" Diego said as he reached into his pocket of his pants to grab his wallet. After Diego had given the money to clerk he grabbed the bag of supplies, turned on his heels, called for Ferno, who had been looking at racks of stuff, and walked out into the morning sunlight. "Okay then Ralts, time to officially catch you" he said picking the Ralts up off his shoulder and placing her on the ground. As he took a few steps back he grabbed a pokéball out of the bag, set the bag on the ground and got ready to catch the Ralts. "Okay I'm not that sure how to do this, but I've seen I been done before so here goes nothing" he said as he pushed the button on the ball and gently threw it at Ralts. There was a burst of light causing Diego to cover his eyes but when he looked back at where Ralts had once stood now sat a pokéball in the dust. As it stopped moving Diego began to smile again, "Yes! I caught a Ralts" he shouted joyfully while Ferno barked happily as well, "let's do you now Ferno" Diego smiled at Ferno, reaching down and grabbing another pokéball.

"_Nonono, I'm not doing that, I prefer to be out here with you"_ he barked backing away from Diego.

"Don't worry I'll catch you than bring you back out straight away. Plus, you don't want other trainers trying to capture you because you're not officially mine" Diego said reassuringly.

"_Fine but make it quick"_ Ferno growled.

As Diego repeated the process which he'd done for Ralts, he could help but smile even more than before as he held both of his pokéballs in his hands. "So this is what it feels like to be a Pokémon trainer" he smiled to himself.

* * *

_"Are you gonna bring her out yet?" _Ferno barked.

"Yeah, and if you would of asked I would of told you that I thought of a name for her" Diego smiled at Ferno's impatience as he reached for the pokéball he had carried in his pant pocket.

"_Fine what's the magical name you got for her? Please tell me it's not something cheesy_" Ferno growl at the thought of a horribly cheesy name.

Diego shook his head, "nope, you finding out when she does" he said as he pointed the pokéball towards the western fringe of Oldale. As he pushed the button there was a burst of light as the ball opened releasing the Ralts. As the light faded the Ralts yawned. "Okay then guys let's head over to Petalburg so we can meet up with the others. Ferno, I expect that you'll be walking?" which earned a confirming bark, "Dea, do you want to sit on my shoulder?" Diego asked earning confused looks from both Pokémon.

"_Who's Dea?"_ Ferno asked.

"Her" Diego replied simply pointing at the Ralts "that's her name; Dea. Do you like it?" he asked causing Dea to nod vigorously and start talking. "What's she saying?" Diego asked Ferno.

"_I can't pick out much, only fragments; 'yes I love it' 'thank you so much'"_ Ferno replied not taking his eyes of the ecstatic Ralts.

"Alright, Dea calm down. We need to head off" Diego said grabbing Dea and lifting her off the ground and onto his shoulder. "Onwards unto Petalburg" Diego exclaimed in an announcer's voice causing him to giggle at his own stupidity.

* * *

**A few hours later**

"_I got a question" _Dea said to Ferno from Diego's shoulder, Ferno didn't look up but nodded to show that he was listening, "_before you said; 'This one's not human, his different' what did you mean?"_

After a pause Ferno replied "_ahh… I don't know what to tell you, he's just different. He's a Guardian or something"_

_"But that's the thing, what is a Guardian?" Dea asked confused._

_"That's an excellent question"_ Ferno growled thoughtfully before turning to Diego, "_Diego what's a Guardian?" _

"Huh, I knew it was only a matter of time before you asked that" Diego sighed, "um how to tell you this, ah. Okay, once upon a time, there was three species that inhabited Earth; the Humans, the Pokémon and the Guardians. The Guardians were a species that were kind of a cross between the two other races, like, we had humanoid bodies but we solely consisted of two types, like Pokémon, for example I'm made from dark and fire, kind of like a Houndoom.

"But one day something happened, the Guardians disappeared. All but one because you see we are what our name says we are, we are Guardians. So this chosen one stayed behind while the others vanished. This chosen one was the Guardian of its time, and when he passed on a new Guardian was born and so it continued for thousands of years. So when one dies another is born, so when the last Guardian died I was born. A wise man once said that nothing really dies. It just comes back in a new form." Diego explained staring straight ahead the whole time.

"_But why are you the Guardian and why dark and fire?" _Dea asked only making Diego give her a confusing look.

"_She said 'why are you the Guardian and why dark and fire?'"_ Ferno sighed.

"Oh okay, I don't know why I'm the Guardian I guess it was just the luck of the draw" Diego shrugged, "and the dark and fire thing that because they were the first typing I absorbed, an Absol and a Charmeleon"

"_Absorbed?" _Ferno asked.

Just as Diego was answer there was a yell off to their right; "Oi, you, you with the Growlithe"

"Huh?" Diego grunted as he turned to see a young boy jogging towards him

"You, you're a trainer right? I challenge you to a Pokémon battle" the boy gasped from the short exercise.

"Ah yeah, sure" Diego replied as the boy reached out into his pocket and pulled out a pokéball.

"Go Poochyena!" he shouted as he released his Pokémon.

"Okay, Dea" Diego said picking her up off his shoulder only to find her shaking uncontrollably. "You okay Dea?" then he made the connection between Dea's shaking and the fact that she was staring directly at the Poochyena, "oh, it's okay you just sit this one out" Diego reassured placing her on the ground. "Ferno your up" he instructed as Ferno took a few steps towards the Poochyena.

"_Let's do this"_ he growled.

"Poochyena use Howl" the kid said as his Pokémon put its head back and howled.

"Okay Ferno, use Ember" Diego instructed making Ferno to unleash a jet of fire that hit the Poochyena head on before it had time to react.

"Okay Poochyena use Tackle" the kid instructed

"Hit it again with another Ember" Diego shouted as the Poochyena charged at Ferno. As Ferno released another jet of flame again getting another direct hit causing the Poochyena to trip and skid along the ground for a meter before stopping. "Looks like we won" Diego smiled at Ferno who howled triumphantly.

"Oh, Poochyena return" he boy said pointing the pokéball at his unconscious Poochyena. "I guess you're a lot tougher that you look. Here" the boy said holding out a fist full of notes.

"No, I'm not gonna take your money, I reckon that you're gonna need it more than I will" Diego smiled "exactly if you're gonna win next time" he said causing the youngster to smile.

"Thanks" he said before turning around and heading back towards Oldale.

"Good work Ferno, you were amazing" Diego said crouching down and giving Ferno a good scratching.

"_Pff, It was nothing"_ Ferno growled happily.

"Anyway, Dea are you okay now?" Diego asked turning to Dea.

"_Yeah, I guess I'm a little affected by the other Poochyena I encountered"_ she replied only to see Diego look confusingly at Ferno who simple rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Man we really got to get a better way of communicating" Diego said, standing up and scratching the back of his head. "Anyway we better keep moving" he announced, picking Dea up and placing her back on his shoulder.

* * *

"_You still haven't answered my question yet" _Ferno barked looking up at Diego

"Root" Diego said as Ferno tripped on a tree root sticking out of the ground causing Dea to giggle. "What was the question?" Diego said looking straight ahead.

"_What's absorbing?" _Ferno growl annoyed that he hadn't seen the root beforehand.

"It's like the move but different" after a pause Ferno barked impatiently, "it's something that Guardians do but instead of taking power from a Pokémon it trades a small piece of their aura with the Guardian own aura. It how we gain our ability to understand Pokémon" Diego said.

"_But why can't you understand Dea?" _Ferno asked

"You know how psychic type moves have no effect on dark types and dark types are super effective to psychics" both Pokémon nodded, "well it's like that but if I absorb a psychic type they die" Diego said as a shadow cast across he's face, "that's why I can't understand Dea, I never absorbed a evolutionary variant of a Ralts"

"_Oh" _Dea said finally understanding.

"_So can you never understand her?"_ Ferno asked

"I don't know" Diego said. "Anyway let's stop talking about such depressing stuff, we're almost at Petalburg" Diego said breaking the awkward silence. "Actually that's not true, we got another 10 K to go" Diego said earning a groan from both Pokémon which made him laugh.

* * *

As the trio finally walked through the eastern border of trees that surround that side of Petalburg the sun had begun its decent from its midday position. "_Argh that was a way to long route"_ Ferno growled licking his paws.

"Pff that was nothing, you should see the route between Mauville and Fortree that one's a killer" Diego said wandering towards a bench to take a rest.

"_Well you didn't have to carry Dea for a whole 3 kilometers, I mean she's heavy" _Ferno said as he collapsed against Diego's leg before being hit by a branch that Dea had thrown at him using her newly learnt Confusion. "HEY!" Ferno yelled.

"Chill you two, plus I had to carry her for the other 20 odd Ks I feel like my shoulder bone's broken" Diego said before both him and Ferno burst into laughter only to be cut short by another two branches hitting each of them. "We're only joking Dea" Diego chuckled covering his head from further assault only to hear Dea mutter something, probably insulting. "Alright guys let's head over to the Pokècenter and get you guys healed up" he groaned as he hauled himself off the bench.

_"Ah, fine then" _Ferno groaned as he slowly got up.

"Dea you can ride up top" Diego said grabbing her and placing her on his shoulder, "okay, let's go". It took them a further 15 minutes before they found the centre about in the middle of the city. Instead of doing the whole act like in Oldale, Diego simply put the Pokémon back in their pokéballs and handed them over to the nurse to heal them. After the nurse told him it was gonna be a 10 minute wait, Diego decided to call one of his mates he was gonna be meeting up with, "hello Red?... hey man, it's Diego… yeah I'm in Petalburg, where are you… where's that?... oh so you still in Petalburg, I thought you would of headed over to Kanto already… oh so you're gonna wait to see her before heading off eh?... Oh are you there with the others….. Yeah well some of us travel by ourselves, like men….. Nice, anyway, do you know when she's getting in?... Okay, about 10:30, are we gonna meet up beforehand…. Yeah I'll meet you down at the port about 9:45…. K, hey I gotta go… yeah see you tomorrow, bye" with that Diego ended the call and walked back towards the main desk of the centre where he was being call to from.

"Here are your Pokémon, fully healed" the nurse said handing over his two pokéballs.

"Thanks, by the way where's the closest motel?" Diego said. After getting directions he headed out the doors and took a few steps before releasing both Ferno and Dea. "Alright guys I just got off the phone with one of my friends and we're gonna meet up with them tomorrow, so we're gonna rest up at a motel not too far from here, sounds like a plan?" to which both of them nodded in argument, "okay then" Diego said as he turned and began walking in the direction of the motel.


	5. Chapter 4

"How much more further till we get to the port?" Ferno growled impatiently.

"Another K" Diego replied before having to lean forward against a random westerly wind, "screw this wind, it wasn't here when we left the motel, Argh".

"All you ever do is whine, every hour of everyday" Dea said from her place on Ferno's back, making Ferno laugh also causing Diego to give the two of them a questioning look making both of them laugh.

"You know Dea I may not understand what you say but I can understand Ferno so I wouldn't push your luck considering I have an informant" Diego said seriously before bursting into laughter at Dea's worried face.

"So anyway, who are we meeting?" Ferno asked finally recovering from his laughing.  
"A couple of old friends of mine" Diego replied looking straight forward.

"Well we already know that, you told us that yesterday" Ferno growled annoyed at the repeated answer.

"Okay then I'll tell you about one of them, ahh let's see, okay I'll tell you about Red. He's been my friend since I was 5 and he's one of my best friends," Diego said.

"Who's your other best friend?" Dea asked causing Diego to give her a puzzled look only for Ferno to impatiently repeat the question.

"Oh, ah, the other one you'll be meeting very soon…. Hopefully" Diego replied before, "anyway, as I was saying before Dea so rudely interrupted me. Red and I have done a lot together throughout the years….. Ah that's all I can really think of at the moment" Diego said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Well I hope you're not that bad at describing other things" Ferno growled making fun of Diego.

"What, do you want me to talk to you about the birds and the bees" Diego smiled.

"The what?" Dea asked.

"Never mind" Ferno said shaking his head at Diego's confused look.

"Anyway, here we are, this is where Red said we'd meet him… but I can't see him" Diego said looking around from the wooden railing of the Petalburg port. "Argh just like Red to be late" Diego groaned.

"I'm not always late," a voice said from the left of Diego making him turn to reveal a thirteen year old boy stand about 5 meters away, "not as long as I have these two with me" he smiled indicating behind him.

"Ah dude, there's no one behind you" Diego said beginning to smile.

"Oh fuck, I must have lost them in the crowd. Oh well they know where we're meeting" Red said before walking forward and pulling Diego into a hug.

"How's it been, I didn't see you at the lab when we chose our starters, I thought you might of already gone early, or something" Red said breaking free of the quick hug.

"Ah yeah well I had some problems with that morning," Diego said rubbing his head.

"Oi, don't do that, that's my thing" Red said smacking Diego arm making him laugh. "Oh yeah, did you pick a starter?" Red asked.

"Yeah I did, and he's right here," Diego said crouching down to pat Ferno's head, who was sitting down with his chest puff out, "his names Ferno".

"What about the other one?" Red asked indicating to Dea.

"Yeah, I caught her on my way out here. Her name's Dea" Diego said patting a shy Dea, "it's okay he's not gonna bite".

"Hmm, a girl, are we sure she can handle sharing you" Red said raising an eyebrow.

"Well I guess she'll have too" Diego smiled standing up, "anyway, what did you get for a starter?"

"I just came with Poliwhirl; I think I might get a proper starter from Professor Oak" Red announced reaching behind him to release his long time friend: Poli.

"Oi, faggots!" someone yelled from behind Red causing both boys to look out of curiosity, "you left me alone with nature girl" a boy yelled angrily, storming towards the duo.

"Who got his knickers in a twist" Diego whispered to Red.

As the boy closed down the gap between him and the two other boys there was a yell behind him, "you know I have a name, Ruby" a girl steamed from behind the boy, to which he simply flicked her off as he reached the two boys.

"You, arsehole, you left me alone with her" Ruby steamed at Red.

"Well don't blame me; I thought you were behind me the whole time" Red replied raising his hands defensively.

"Hey Brendan" Diego interrupted.

"Hey Diego, as for you, how could you not look behind you for 30 minutes" Brendan said angrily to Red.

"Hey May" Diego yelled to the girl who had almost reached the group of boys.

"Hey Diego, Ruby stop yelling at Red" she said, hitting Brendan on the back of the head causing him to flinch.

"Stop calling me by my middle name, my name is Brendan" Brendan steamed rubbing his head.

"Alright guys, before you all begin tearing each other to pieces I'd like to say that it good to see you all" Diego said looking at his friends.

"Diego we all saw you a few days ago, it not like you when to the ends of the earth or something" May said rolling her eyes.

"I know, I only said that so that you'd stop the yelling, personally I don't really give a shit, you know, apart from Red" Diego said blatantly. "Anyway, let's see your Pokémon" he said.

"Fine, well you already know that I have Ruru, Nana and Coco," Brendan said releasing his Pokémon, "and I got this new one from the Professor; Zuzu" he said indicating to the Mudkip.

"Well I got a Torchic: Toro and I've always had Rono" May said following Brendan's suit. "What about you Diego?" she asked.

"Well I got a Growlithe from your dad, he's called Ferno, and I caught a Ralts on the way here, her name is Dea" he replied motioning toward his Pokémon, who hadn't changed much since they had meet Red but Dea had hid behind Diego's leg when the yelling had begun.

"Wait, so we both have Ralts'" Brendan said eyeing Dea.

"Yeah I guess so but mine's better" Diego replied smiling.

"Anyway what do you want to do 'til she gets here?" May asked the boys only for them to stare blankly at her.

"Food?" Red suggested to which the other boys grunted in agreement.

* * *

"When is her boat s'pose to get in?" Brendan asked leaning against a lamp pole.

"Now according to the schedule" Diego replied leaning on the railing, looking out to the sea south of Petalburg.

"Been a while since you saw her last, eh Diego" May teased.

Diego just grunted as a reply before smiling, thinking of the fact that May had used this time to get closer to Diego, in fact him and May had been spending a lot more time together since she had left Littleroot.

"What does her boat look like?" Brendan asked eyeing a ship pulling into the port a few hundred meters away.

"How should I know" Diego said still scanning the horizon for a boat.

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with S," Red announced, "and it's not a Swellow".

"And it's a girl" Brendan said catching sight of what Red had spotted.

The mention that it was a girl made Diego perk up, "Where?" he asked before he saw what he'd been looking for, making him smile before he instructed Ferno to stand beside him, who had watching some Magikarp from the railing, and Dea not to hid behind his leg again.

"Dude, how disappointing, if I didn't know better I'd say that you like her, a lot" Brendan said from his position on the pole.

"Shut up Brendan" May growled for Diego because he hadn't taken his eyes off the approaching girl.

She had changed since he'd seen her last, besides from height, she was about the same size as Diego, and the change of clothes, her sand coloured hair had grown to just past her shoulders, which now blew around in a light breeze, her skin had gained a slight colouration since she had move to Dewford compared to the paleness it used to be, slightly hiding her freckles, her eyes still held a grey colour, which as his first memory of her and she wore a white long sleeved t-shirt covered by a sky blue shirt, which hung out of her dark grey tracksuit pants, held up by a black belt.

When she finally reached the group Diego had use all his willpower not to hug her, so he was a little surprised when she when straight to May and hugged her instead. After the girls talked for a minute or so the girl moved along to hug Brendan and have a chat with him, once finished with Brendan she turned to Red and repeated the process. After she had finished talking to Red she simply turned her back to Diego and started to talk to May again. After a minute a worried look overcame Diego face, like a child who had don't something bad but didn't understand what they'd done wrong, Diego looked over to Red for some type of answer, "oh come on Sarah, stop being so mean" Red said to the girl only making her smile.

"What are you talking about Red? I'm not being mean to anyone" Sarah replied to Red, turning to face him with a confused look.  
"Stop being mean to him, he looks like he's about to burst into tears" Brendan said.

"Who?" Sarah asked spinning to face Brendan.

"The guy who hasn't taken his eyes off you since he saw you; Diego" May explained rolling her eyes.

"Who's Diego?" Sarah said turning to May.

At that point Diego's mouth opened to form words but was never able to because Sarah whipped around and threw her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. All a sudden Diego's nostrils were invaded by the smell of sea and salt as he buried his face into her shoulder. After what felt like a millennium there was a cough that broke Diego from the trance he'd been in as he realized he'd been hugging Sarah for too long, as he tried to break free he realized that Sarah was still holding strong so he had to gently ease her arms off him making her let go of him.

"It's good to see you Sarah" Diego said trying to avoid eye contact.

"Likewise" Sarah muttered as a reply.

"How's Dewford been?" Diego asked referring to the island town that Sarah had moved to 3 years ago.

"It's been good" she replied sweeping a sand coloured stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Oh Diego, take me in your strong, muscular, tanned arms and hold me" Brendan said in a girly voice trying to impersonate Sarah.

"Oh Sarah, let us run away to the mountains together and live together forever. Smoochy smooch smooch" Red mocked in a deep voice making a kissing face. The boys mocking caused both Sarah and Diego to blush and look away from each other.

"Are you forgetting something? Or some people?" a voice growled from beside Diego's leg making him look down and realize that Ferno and Dea had been standing there the whole time being ignored.

"Oh yeah course, Sarah I'd like to introduce you to some friends of mine; this is Ferno and Dea, my Pokémon" Diego said crouching down beside the two Pokémon. Ferno barked a greeting while Dea made some weird growling noise.

"Oh cool you got a Growlithe and a Ralts, I got a Pokémon too," she said reaching behind her to grab a pokéball off her belt, "come on Tle" there was a burst of light revealing a small Squirtle.

"Nice choice, I guess you got a type advantage over me and May" Diego said looking at the Squirtle who returned his stare. "We should probably go check when all the boats are leaving for the regions" Diego said standing up straight.

"Alright let's go" Red said, turning and heading towards the main office of the port.

* * *

"Well there's my boat to Kanto" Red said hearing a call for the boarding of the Kanto bound passenger ship.

"Hey I got an idea" Diego said walking towards the Kanto gate with Red and the others.

"That's a first" May giggled.

"In a years' time we all met back at Littleroot" Diego continued ignoring Mays jab.

"What like a reunion?" Brendan asked.

"Yeah, this time next year, we all meet back up at Littleroot and see how everyone is" Diego said.

"Yeah and so we don't lose contact with each other" May added.

"Isn't that why we have Pokénavs?" Red said as they neared the gate entrance.

"I'm gonna do it" Sarah said.

"Screw it I'm in" Brendan said.

"Me too" May nodded

"Red?" Diego said looking at his friend.

"Yeah, course I'm in" Red finally said, "but everyone better be there, I don't want to turn up and find myself walking around Littleroot alone"

"'Kay then, anyways I'll call you in a couple of days to see how Kanto is" Diego said pulling Red into a brief hug.

"Have fun guys" Red said after hugging everyone, then turned on his heels and walked through the gate to the Kanto boat.

"Hey there's our boat" Diego said nudging Sarah when the intercom called for the departure of their boat.

"Where are we heading, Diego?" Ferno barked from down beside Diego's leg while they headed toward their departure gate.

"We're heading to…" Diego started.

"Are you guys sure that you'll be fine travelling around Hoenn by yourselves" Sarah asked May, interrupting Diego.

"Yeah, of course we are, I mean if Red can do it, why can't we" May replied slightly annoyed.

"Okay chill" Sarah said raising her hands.

"Anyway, have fun in Johto" Brendan interrupted.

"We will" Diego said before looking at Sarah, we will he thought to himself. "Come on, let's go" Diego said nudging Sarah.

After hugging May and Brendan the duo walked into the Johto gate. As Diego followed Sarah down the ramp towards the boat he couldn't help but feel happy about being able to head off on a journey, like his siblings, and be able to travel with Sarah, his best friend.

"You ready?" he asked Ferno and Dea.

"Yeah" Ferno replied while Dea simply nodded, making Diego smile.

* * *

**There's just some thing I think I need to clear up.**

**They are all the same age: 13.**

**'kay thank for reading.**


	6. Chapter 5

'_Go ahead as you waste your days with thinking  
When you fall, everyone stands  
Another day, and you've had your fill of sinking  
With the life held in your  
Hands are shaking cold  
These hands are meant to hold'_

"Would you shut up, you're not good at singing. At all" Sarah yelled, throwing her left running shoe at Diego.

"Better than you" Diego retorted easily dodging the flying shoe, "plus you like this song".

"Yeah, I like it when the singer sings it, not you, so either shut up or sing somewhere else" Sarah growled.

"Fine, but I'm taking the Pokénav with me" Diego said grabbing the Pokénav and jumped off the bed, "I'm gonna go explore the rest of the ship then" reaching for the cabin door he heard the scampering sound of claws on bare wood making him turn around.

"_Don't forget about us_" Ferno said as he ran between Diego's legs while Dea bumped along on his back.

"Okay then," Diego laughed before turning to Sarah, his laughter fading to a smile, "I'm not sure when I'll be back, so don't worry". With that Diego turned and walked through the door before gently kicking it shut.

He had always loved the ocean; the smell of the salt in the air, the cry of the sea birds, the sounds of the sea Pokémon under the boat, the gentle grumble of the engine and the quiet lapping of the waves against the hull of the boat. As he started to walk along one of the hallways that navigated the inner and outer working of the passenger ship his stomach unleashed a mighty growl. '_Hmm, I haven't had food since back in Petalburg' _Diego thought as he began looking for the dining room. After about 10 minutes of wandering around mindlessly he finally came upon a map of the interior of the ship, "alrighty, so we're here and the food is on the top deck so…. Ahh…. Okay, we have to head in that direction" Diego said to no one in particular, pointing towards the stern of the ship before yawning.

"_Will they have any food for Pokémon at the dining room?"_ Ferno asked staring confusingly at the map.

"Yeah course they will" Diego reassured picking Dea up off Ferno's back and placing her on his own shoulder before turning on his heels and began walking in the direction of the dining room,

"_Come on Ferno_" Dea said from Diego's shoulder.

* * *

"Argh, damn this is some good lookin' food" Diego said settling into a seat at one of the tables in the dining room, staring at the mountain of food in front of him.

"_Remember it's not all yours"_ Ferno said jumping onto a vacant seat next to Diego.

"Yeah, I know but you better eat all of yours, you too" Diego said placing Dea into a baby's highchair.

"_Do I have to sit in this, it's so degrading"_ Dea moaned struggling in her seat, "_Ferno doesn't have too?"_

When Diego simply looked at Ferno he sighed and repeated what had been said, "Because Ferno's bigger than you and if you didn't you wouldn't be able to see over the table" Diego noted grabbing one of the spare plates and began loading it with food while Dea started grumbling to herself. "You know you shouldn't talk to yourself, it makes you look crazy" Diego said to Dea, pushing the plate towards Ferno who burst into laughter;

"_She looks crazy? You're talking to Pokémon, you look crazy" _Ferno laughed to which Diego simply shrugged before putting food onto Dea's plate.

"_Thanks" _Dea muttered still slightly pissed at Diego.

After about 20 minutes of happily eating in silence Diego finally finished his meal and unleashed an almighty burp, "damn that stuff was great" he said pushing his chair back and patting his stomach with a smile on his face.

"_Mmm it is, isn't it" _Ferno grumbled, his mouth full of food making Diego smile even more.

"_How long have you known Sarah for?" _Dea asked there was still quite a large amount of food on her plate.

"Not hungry Dea?" Diego asked seeing her plate.

"_You didn't answer my question" _Dea said stubbornly only to get a confused look from Diego, _Arceus damn it, I hate this stupid translating _she thought to herself.

"I've known Sarah since I was about…. 3, 3 or 4, somewhere around there" Diego said interrupting Dea's thoughts. When she looked at him with a confused look he simply pointed at Ferno, "I may not be able to understand you but he can".

"_Does she know about you being the Guardian?" _Ferno asked after grabbing some of Dea's food.

"Yeah, she was there when I absorbed the Charmeleon, she's has always know, just like Red" Diego answered following Ferno's suit.

"_Why?" _Ferno asked.

"She found out before my father told me I should hide what I am, same with Red" Diego said with a mouth half full of food.

"Who found out what?" a voice asked from behind Diego.

"Hey" Diego said when he turned around and saw that Sarah was standing behind him with a plate of food.

"Who found out what?" Sarah repeated.

"Ohh, I was just telling these two that you know what I am" Diego replied moving along to make room for Sarah.

"You mean a monster" she laughed, but stopped when she saw Diego giving her an angry look, "oh come on, I was joking" she smiled.

"Weren't you staying in the cabin?" Diego said bluntly.

"Yeah well me and Tle got hungry, so we decided to come and have some food" she said dividing her food and scraping the smallest part onto an extra plate.

"Where is Tle?" Diego asked looking around.

"He's down here" Sarah said indicting to the ground next to her.

"Well get him up here" Diego instructed while Sarah picked Tle up and placed him on the table. "So Tle, how are enjoying being Sarah's Pokémon?"

"_It's pretty good so far, but you can't understand me so it's not like you'll know what I just said so poop" _Tle said not even looking up from his food.

"Well actually Tle, I can understand you" Diego said simply causing Tle to stop eating with a lump of food halfway to his mouth.

"_Really?" _he said completely confused.

"Yeah, Diego's something different" Sarah answered for Diego.

"I'll show you when we get back to the cabin" Diego said to Tle's confused face before grabbing the last piece of food off Dea's plate.

"_Hey" _Dea yelled only making Diego smile.

* * *

"How long is the boat ride?" Sarah asked while she, Diego, Ferno, Tle and Dea walked along one of the outside walkways. Actually Dea was riding on Diego's shoulder and Tle was on Sarah's shoulder.

"Two days and two nights, so we'll arrive in Johto on the third day" Diego said almost tripping up on Ferno who suddenly rushed across his path to look over the side.

"_Hey look,_ _Wailord_" Ferno barked excitably staring at ten blue humps on the water.

"Ferno I hate to tell you this but those aren't Wailords, their waves" Diego said crouching down to pat Ferno.

"Ahh Diego those aren't waves, they are Wailords, cos if they aren't those are some pretty weird waves" Sarah said looking at the humps that had suddenly sprouted tails.

"Wait what?" Diego said standing up and looking at the Wailords after a slight pause Diego reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pokénav to check the date, "ohh I see," he said when he saw the date.

"Well?" Sarah asked not taking her eyes off the aquatic giants.

"Their migrating from their feeding grounds in the poles to their breeding grounds near the equator" Diego said leaning on the railing, watching the Wailord before they dived. "Anyway we should probably get back to the cabin before it starts raining" he said eyeing some nasty looking storm clouds.

"Yeah, ok…. nerd" Sarah said still staring at the spot where the Wailords had dived.

"Come on then" Diego said grabbing her arm and pulling her away from railing.

It wasn't long before they got back to the cabin and Diego forced Sarah through the door, "come on it's gonna rain soon" Diego said while Sarah moaned about something. After Diego shut the door he walked over to his bed, took off his shoes and collapsed onto it while Sarah walked pass Diego, smacking his feet as she passed, towards the bathroom mumbling something about a shower. When he heard the door lock he closed his eyes and felt pressure on chest, thinking it was probably Dea then felt fur rub against right side. After about three minutes Diego opened his eyes when he heard some scratching on the floor, looking down he saw that Tle was trying to get comfortable on the wooden floor, "Tle, why don't you come and join us" he said tossing his arm over the edge of the bed. After half a minute he felt a slight pinching up he's arm as Tle climbed up it and jumped onto the bed before settling down on his left side.

20 minutes later Sarah walked out of the bathroom, clad in a t-shirt and a baggy pair of shorts, toweling her hair off. When she caught sight of Diego laying there with their Pokémon lying around him she couldn't help but smile, _it's good to have him back _she thought to herself as she threw the towel back into the bathroom and walked over to her bed, pulled out her bag from under the bed and began rummaging through it quietly so not to wake Diego or the Pokémon. When she found the book she was looking for she lay back on her bed and began reading, listening to Diego's gentle snoring, smiling.

* * *

"Argh" Diego moaned as he slowly, very slowly, came back to the world of the living. "Grr" Diego growled as he began stretching out to wake himself up. "Grr" he repeated as he started feeling around his body for the bodies of the Pokémon that had slept around him, refusing to open his eyes, "grr?" he said when he couldn't find any bodies.

"Stop saying 'grr' or I'll come over there and beat you up" Sarah said from her position on her bed.

"You can't beat me up, you're a weakling…grr" Diego said as he burrowed under the sheets. After a minute Diego knew he was in no moral danger so he pulled himself out from the sheets, "See you can't hurt me. OWWW!" he yelled as one of Sarah's trainers hit him on the side of the face.

"I warned you" she giggled still reading her book.

"That was incredible unnecessary" Diego replied as he rubbed his right ear. "Anyway, how long have I been out for?" he asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"20 hours, you slept through a thunderstorm too" Sarah sighed, placing a bookmark in her book as she realized that the simple talk was going to become a full fledged conversation.

"Shit seriously? I must have been really tired" he said as he pulled on his trainers. "Where's the little dudes?" he asked referring to the Pokémon.

"They ran off about 8 o'clock" Sarah answered standing up and raising her right leg slightly as a fart sound came out.

"Nice" Diego smiled, "we should probably go look for them, they could be in trouble or something" Sarah just grunted in reply. As they both exited the cabin they started heading towards the top deck. "How's Littleroot been since I was there last?" Sarah asked putting her hands in her pant pockets.

"Same old, same old, nothing really happens anyway" Diego replied smiling. "Me and May have been spending a lot of time together lately" he said glancing at Sarah.

"What?!" she shouted before realizing that she said it way to fast, "I… I mean why" she repeated.

"I been helping the professor out with some research, why are you jealous?" he asked looking accusingly at Sarah.

"No" she mumbled lowering and turning her face away from Diego to hide the blush that had spread across her cheeks.

Diego just smiled when he saw that she was trying to conceal her blush, "Don't worry there's only one girl for me" he said gently nudging her.

"Really? Who?" she asked turning to face him, her blush fading away.

"Well that's a secret, probably isn't May though" he smiled at her before laughing as her blush returned in full force causing her to look away again.

_He's messing with me _she thought to herself, "Yeah well I've had boys come after me too, in Dewford, some were really handsome" she smirked deciding to get revenge.

"Oh yeah, sounds like you have some reserves then" he said, his face emotionless.

"How do you know that one of them isn't the one I want first?" she replied slightly angered that he hadn't reacted to what she had said.

Diego stopped walking and raised one of his eyebrows, "Because then you wouldn't be here, going on a journey to a foreign region, with me. You would be here with one of them". Sarah just smiled to herself as Diego stood there, "isn't that right Ferno?" he shouted before smiling and looking up at a walkway that was a floor up.

"_Yep" _Ferno barked, poking his head between the railings.

"Go get the others and get your butts down here" Diego instructed while Sarah came over and stood next to Diego. Three minutes later they were all walking towards the dining room to catch a late lunch, Dea and Tle sat on Diego's and Sarah's shoulders, respectively, while Ferno walked between the two talking about what they had done while Diego had been asleep.

"Boat gets in tomorrow" Sarah whispered to Diego, leaning close as not to disturb Ferno rambling.

"Yeah, I know" he whispered back before smiling.


	7. Chapter 6

It was late morning when Diego and Sarah finally arrived in the town of New Bark. The ship had had some issues getting into the small dock. The young sun beat down with an unusual fierceness for early spring as the pair waited for the other passengers to exit the boat making both of them sweat. When the two of them final got to the departure ramp they had both developed a thin layer of sweat on their foreheads. Moving into single file they walked down the ramp holding onto the rope railing, because the ramp was swaying between the boat and the dock. They both looked nervous as the exited the terminal into the town of New Bark.

"Where do we head first?" Sarah asked looking around.

"Away from the entrance of the terminal would be my first thought" Diego replied giving a nasty look at a guy who just barraged into him mumbling about stupid kids.

"Sounds like a plan" she said taking hold of Diego's arm and leading him away from the entrance, before he got in to a fight with someone, "Let's get you into somewhere with less people" practical dragging Diego toward what looked like a park nearby.

"Alright I can walk for myself you know" Diego winded attempting to pulling his arm out of Sarah's vice grip.

"I'm not letting go of you until we get to that park" Sarah said half turning to Diego revealing an evil smile.

Diego begin to panic because, although the face may have changed shape, the look hadn't. It was a look Sarah did before she blamed something bad that she did on Diego. "Sarah what are you gonna do?" he asked with a slightly shaky voice as they approached a park bench.

"Nothing, just sit here," she said forcing Diego onto the bench, "don't move, I'm gonna go to the toilet and make a call. When I get back you better be in that exact spot" she growled before turning on her heels and walking happily, almost skipping, towards the toilets with a smile on her face.

After she finished making her call, about 10 minutes after leaving Diego to his own devices, she decided to go check on him. When she walked over to the bench she saw that Diego had followed her instructions for once; he sat in the exact same spot but he had removed his bag and now both his Pokémon were out, sitting next to him while he sat there listening to his Pokénav with his hands behind his head. "Diego, I'm back" she said standing in front of him, after being ignored she smacked his arm "Diego, I said I'm back".

"Yeah so, you were gone for 5 minutes" he said pulling his headphones out of his ears.

"Actually, 10 minutes" she retorted reaching into her pocket to retrieve Tle's pokéball.

"Anyway, I sorted out some accommodation while you were taking a poopie" he said grabbing his bag and shoving his Pokénav back into the front pocket.

"Who with?" Sarah asked realizing she hadn't thought of that when she had been at the phone.

"An old friend of my dad's" Diego answered standing up only to find his face inches from Sarah's, they stared into each other's eyes before Sarah finally turned away blushing while Diego continued explaining; "the way I see it: we head over a food place, grab some food, head over to the local Pokémon association place, sign up, go do some supply shopping, head over to this place I've sorted out, chill out until tomorrow, do anything we might of forgotten then head off to begin travelling".

"Okay then" Sarah said taking a few steps back before turning to look at Diego, finally recovering from her blush. She turned around and began heading towards the exit of the park.

"Come on guys" Diego said to his Pokémon, lifting Dea onto his shoulder while Ferno jumped off the bench and headed towards Sarah as Diego jogged to catch up with her.

* * *

"Is this the place? It doesn't look right" Sarah commented. They were standing outside of a laboratory, some plants had decided that the building was an excellent climbing frame and had wound themselves up the sides and onto the roof, giving it a very rundown look.

"Yeah this is the place the guy said to go. Come on Ferno" Diego said starting towards the door of the laboratory.

"Diego wait, there could be homeless people in there" she shouted after him only moving one step forward.

"Then you wait out here and I'll go inside, okay" Diego reassured resting his palm on the wooden door. While Sarah simply stood where she was, Diego pushed open the door and stepped inside. When he saw what was inside the building he wasn't overwhelmed, because it looked similar to Prof. Birch's lab, so he simply began walking forward looking for anyone that could help him. _Damn, no hobos _he thought to himself. He was about halfway towards the back of the lab when some guy ran up to him shouting "Hey kid, what are you doing here, you're not supposed to be here, this isn't a playground". When he reached where Diego was standing he made a grab for his sleeve but Diego simply sidestepped him and the guy overbalanced and ended up laying face down on the floor.

"Say you wouldn't happen to know where I can find a Professor Elm, would you?" Diego asked giving the guy a hand up.

"Ahh yeah I'm his assistant, but his not seeing anyone" the assistant said, when he saw Diego's confused look he explained; "he's waiting for a girl to come in and register, so he doesn't want to miss her".

"The girl's name wouldn't happen to be Sarah?" Diego asked. When the assistant nodded he told the assistant to stay put and turned around and headed towards the door. When he opened the lab door he saw that Sarah was sitting, cross-legged on the ground playing with Tle. Diego stopped for a moment and watched for about 5 seconds before snapping out of the trance and calling her to come inside.

"I thought that this place was too scary for simple girls like me" she smirked following Diego to where the assistant patiently waited.

"I never said that," he frowned before speaking to the assistant: "anyway, this is the girl; Sarah. Can we go see Professor Elm now?"

"Ahh yeah, sure this way" the assistant instructed.

As the pair followed the assistant to where Professor Elm was located Diego began to wonder what the gym leader of Johto would be like. He knew a couple of their names but that was about it.

"He just in here" the assistant said, interrupting Diego's thoughts, as he pushed open a door. "Professor Elm, the girl is here".

"Ah yes" the Professor said turning in his swivel chair. The Professor looked a bit too young to be one of the leading researchers of Johto. He wore a pair of pale camo green pants and a light blue shirt which was covered by a lab coat that had papers spilling out of it right pocket. As he got up to approach the pair he somehow stuffed more papers into the pocket causing a few others to fall out and cascade onto the floor. "You must be Sarah?" he asked reaching out to shake her hand.

When Sarah shook his hand she said; "Yeah that's me, and this is my travelling partner: Diego" indicating to Diego who shook his hand when he offered it.

"Quite a firm grip you have there, Diego. Shall we go sign you two into the database?" Elm said walking towards a computer that sat on a wooden table.

While Prof. Elm logged onto the computer Diego noticed a group of pokéballs resting in a container beside the computer he reached out, picked one up and examined it. "Cyndaquil hah?" he said reading the name printed on the ball.

Sarah turned upon hearing Diego's question, "Diego put that back before you break something" she harshly whispered which Diego simply rolled his eyes as a response. She whipped back around when Prof. Elm started asking her questions, blocking Diego from his line of sight.

Diego simply shrugged before gently placing the ball back in its place then he started reading the rest of the names on the balls: Chikorita, Turtwig, Mudkip and Totodile, he picked up the last one and looked at it before crouching down to Ferno, who sniffed the ball curiously. "This was the starter I was planning on choosing if had had the chance" he said pausing at Ferno's raised eyebrow, "but if I had I wouldn't have meet you" Diego laughed rubbing Ferno's head.

"You have quite the bond with your Pokémon" Professor Elm stated looking at Diego over his glasses.

"Yeah I guess you could say that" Diego smiled before standing up, turning back to the container and put the pokéball back into it. "Is it my turn?" Diego asked and stepped around Sarah when Elm gave a confirming nod, "alright what do I have to do?"

"Just answer some questions, very straight forward" Elm said, "okay, first question: are you a boy or a girl?"

"What type of question is that?!" Diego exclaimed.

"Look I don't make the questions" Elm said defensively, "plus you could be a very masculine girl, which has happened before"

"Didn't need to know that" Diego moaned rubbing the side of his face, "I'm a dude"

"Okay question two: what is your full name?"

"Diego Ilex Grove" he sighed at the mention of his stupid middle name.

After some typing the Professor continued "Question three: birthday?"

"19 June"

"Place of birth?"

"Littleroot town, Hoenn"

"Blood type?"

"A"

"Have you been in any other leagues?"

"Nope first one"

"Do you have consent from a parent or guardian?"

"Yeah" Diego smiled thinking of his parents.

"Okay that seems to be it, could the two of you go and step over there for your photos" Elm said indicating to a blue panel on the wall.

"Ladies first" Diego said gesturing for Sarah to go first.

"Geh, what a gentlemen" Sarah said rolling her eyes. After she took up her place in front of the panel she began fiddling with her hair; pulling parts apart and pushing other part together.

"Women" Diego huffed while Elm grabbed a camera and Sarah stopped fidgeting for long enough for her picture to be taken.

"Okay Diego, it's your turn" she said moving out of the way while Diego pulled off his hat and stood in front of the panel.

"Alright, your trainer cards will be ready for pick up tomorrow morning if you want to stop by and pick them up, otherwise I could just mail them to you" Elm said walking back to the computer after taking Diego photo.

"Nah we'll be here tomorrow for the pickup" Sarah answered for the both of them.

"Thank you very much, Professor Elm" Diego said shaking Elm's hand.

"That's quite alright" he replied shaking Sarah's hand.

"Well we had better be heading off," Diego said nudging Sarah "thanks again". The pair headed out of the laboratory and brought out their remaining Pokémon.

"So where's this place you've sorted out for us?" Sarah asked while Tle climbed up onto her shoulder.

"First we gotta go do some shopping for supplies" Diego said placing Dea on his shoulder.

"Fine, let's go then" Sarah moaned heading towards the centre of town. Diego just smiled before following her.

* * *

"You sure this is the place?" Diego asked inspecting the house that stood in front of the group; it was a red brick house with a slightly overgrown front garden, it had a couple of large trees growing around the side, and probably the back, of the house. The house looked very normal as its neighbors were pretty much identical; the only difference was that there was a sign on the picket fence, which ran the perimeter of the property, which read 'Pokémon House'.

"You tell me, you're the one who booked it" Sarah said doing the same as Diego.

"Meh, let's go introduce ourselves" Diego shrugged starting towards the path that lead to the house. "Oh yeah I should probably tell you not to bring up my mum around the lady who lives here; apparently my father dumped this lady to be with my mum, effectively breaking her heart" Diego warned as they neared the front door.

"Then why are we staying here?"

"Do you know any other place where we can stay for free?" Diego whispered, as they had reached the door, to which Sarah simply shook her head, "Yeah, that's what I thought". Diego reached up and knocked on the door before taking two steps quickly back to leave a polite distance.

They waited for about half a minute before the door opened to reveal a woman standing there. Diego had about five seconds to register what she looked like before he was consumed by the woman who had decided to give him a bear hug: "Oh it's so good to see you again" she shrieked crushing Diego's ribs in the process.

"Can't breathe" Diego groaned before taking a large gulp of air as the lady released him from her death grip. "It's good to see too" Diego winched as he stretched his back.

"Oh how rude of me, you must be Sarah, yes Diego did say that he would be having a girl companion with him" she said shaking Sarah's hand whilst eyeing her suspiciously.

"Nice to meet you" Sarah said sheepishly starting to feel uncomfortable under the women's stare.

"Well shall we go inside?" she said clapping her hands together and hurrying the duo inside. Diego hadn't been inside this house since he was eight so he didn't remember much of the interior.

While the owner of the house hurried into the kitchen muttering something about dinner and her son Diego took it upon himself to go do a bit of exploration, so with Ferno walking along beside him, sniffing the floor, he placed down his bag near the entrance and headed into the living room. He turned around when he heard feet walking towards him from behind, only to reveal a nervous looking Sarah. "Don't leave me alone in this place, I'm not the one who knows this lady" she hissed at Diego who simply rolled his eyes and gestured towards the vacant couch to which Sarah jumped on like it was a life raft. Diego was looking along a shelf, that contained a few series of books, some random knickknacks and about ten photo frames, when he did a double take on a photo he had just skimmed over; it was a photo of what appeared to be younger versions of his father, mother, the owner of the house and Red's mother. Diego stood in front of the frame, studying the picture for quite some time because in the end Sarah had to interrupt him from his trance of mindlessly staring at the photograph: "sorry what?" Diego blinked at Sarah as he felt slightly confused.

"I said that dinner is ready" Sarah said from her position at the doorway leading to the hall.

"Ah yeah coming" Diego said still, very slightly, disoriented. He followed Sarah through to the kitchen/dining room to become intoxicated with the smell of full course meal; he didn't know where to begin and simply took in the sight of the appealing food. There was a whole cooked Ducklett on one of the plates; a bowl of different vegetables sitting next to the Ducklett and a pot of macaroni, which Diego practically began drooling at the sight of it. "This all looks incredible" he said as he and Sarah took their seat at the table.

"Yes well it isn't every day that I have guests, so why not pull out all the stops, right?" the lady said as she passed plates to the pair.

Diego was trying to think of a plan of attack when he was interrupted by a small voice: "_ahh, Diego what about me and Dea?" _Ferno growled from down beside Diego's chair leg.

"Oh yeah that's right. Ah I have a question," Diego said catching the attention of their host. When she looked up at him from her plate Diego continued: "Do you have anything to feed the Pokémon?"

"Umm let me think. Yes I believe that there is some Pokémon food under the sink in the kitchen. I'll go get it" she replied beginning to get up.

But Diego shot up like a rocket before she could stand up "no I'll do it, it's our Pokémon after all" he said before nudging Sarah and gesturing for her to hand over Tle's ball. After she handed over the ball Diego walked into the kitchen and began locating the Pokémon food with Ferno helping, but actually he simply dove under Diego's feet at what seemed to be every opportunity. After he found the food he did a quick scan for the bowls, which were conveniently behind the bag of Pokémon food. He was just about to release Dea and Tle from their pokéballs when he heard the front door slam shut and then some talking from out in the dining room. When he poked his head around the doorway he saw the source of the noise: a boy about 8 or 9 was apologizing to the lady. The boy had black hair that seemed to explode out from under a backwards facing hat. Diego just shrugged, turned around and when back to feeding the Pokémon not really interested in the boy. After he finished pouring food into bowl for the Pokémon he told them to stay put and walked back into the dining room to continue dinner. The moment he reached the table he could feel that the atmosphere had changed, Sarah sat hunched over her food trying to ignore the conversation the black haired boy was attempting to strike up. As he took his seat he made a grab for the bowl of macaroni Sarah said something that distracted Diego; "there you are honey, how are the Pokémon?"

"What? Are you talking to me?" Diego asked looking at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes of course I'm talking to you. You are after all my boyfriend" Sarah smiled sweetly. When Diego looked truly confused she leaned in and whispered in his ear: "this little punks' been hitting on me since he arrived so just go with it" she hissed indicating to the kid.

When she went back to her food Diego just shrugged and started collecting food on his plate. He was about to begin munching away at the leg of the Ducklett when he was interrupted by the owner of the house "Gold don't rude, introduce yourself to our guest" she said. Gold was just about to speak when he lady interrupted him "Diego, this is my son Gold. Gold this is Diego." she gestured between the boys "you two meet each other about 5 or 6 years ago, when Diego's father bought him to Johto. You probably don't remember that do you, Diego?"

"Ah actually I only remember fragments, long term memories ain't what it used to be" Diego smiled.

After that brief dialogue there wasn't much talking instead they all sat around eating in silence which Diego couldn't decide if it was awkward or comfortable. At about 8:30 they finished the meal and Diego and Sarah began helping Gold's mother clean up while Gold himself bolted upstairs. It took them 30 minutes to clear away the mess and the leftover food, which Sarah had persuaded Gold's mother to pull into a bunch of containers for them to eat while they were travelling. After all this was done and everything was packed away Gold's mother brought up the topic of the sleeping arrangements; "Umm you see, I only have one spare bed in the house" she smiled apologetically.

"Oh that's fine we can survive with one bed" Sarah said. Diego looked at her with a confused look but she just ignored him.

"Will you sleep in the same bed?" Gold's mother asked.

Sarah eyes widened as she realized what she had just implied "Oh No no no no no, we don't do that" she stammered gesturing to Diego and herself.

"She could stay in my room" a voice suggested hopefully from the doorway.

"No Gold. She will not be staying in your room" his mother said rolling her eyes.

_What is with this kid? He's a giant hornball _Diego thought frowning but he smiled a little when he heard Sarah quietly hiss at the boy. "Why don't I sleep on that the couch in the living room" he suggested. "That way no one has to share beds and no one has to sleep in other peoples rooms"

"If that is what you chose" Gold's mother said.

"Yeah that is what is best I reckon" Diego nodded before turning around and heading into the hall to grab his bag with Ferno and Dea in tow. He sat down on the couch and began rummaging through his bag to locate his toiletries. When he found them he walked up to the bathroom on the top floor and started doing his evening routine. After he had finished he packed up his stuff and when to check on Sarah. When he walked up to her door he heard her talking so he quietly knocked on the door and stuck his head in.

"Oh just wait Diego's here" she said into her Pokénav, "yeah?" she smiled at him.

"Just came in to say early start tomorrow so set your alarm, I want to be on the road before 10am"

"Yeah okay, goodnight Diego"

"Night" he said before nodding to Tle, who was chilling on the bed. As he shut the door he heard her go back to talking but he couldn't make out any of the words. When he got back to the living room he pulled out his sleeping bag and began making a bed. After sometime struggling to set up the 'bed' he finally succeeded and burrowed into his bag to grab his Pokénav to set his alarm only to find that it was almost 10pm. "time to hit the hay guys" he said to his Pokémon, who were already on the 'bed'. After turning off the main light he used the light from his Pokénav to guide him back to couch. As he settled down into it Dea lay down of his chest, "I guess this is a permanent residency, eh Dea?" he smiled when Dea slowly nodded. "Night guys" he said to Ferno, who had settled down between the back of the couch and Diego's arm, and Dea. _Tomorrow it begins _he thought to himself before he fell asleep.

* * *

**Hey there readers,**

**Sorry for the late update, had a couple of issues. I'm planning on putting the chapters out regularly, hopefully.**

**Thanks for reading. review and return for the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 7

He stood there at the beginning of Route 29 looking out at the infinite land before him. The grass under foot was short from continuous trampling but once it was outside the bounds of civilization it grew to a height that could probably conceal a Pidgeotto. His Pokémon stood beside him looking out at the land soaking in the sight. There was a gently breeze pulling at his ends of hoodie making it flutter around his hips. A cry from a flock of Pidgey carried its way on the wind towards him making him tilt his head in its direction. He watched them fly off until they became obstructed from his sight by the thick forest that surrounded the route.

"You got everything you needed?" a voice asked from behind him. Without turning around to see who had spoken to him he nodded. "You ready to head off then?" the voice said reaching his side. In his peripheral vision he saw the person who the voice belong to, he smiled before nodding again. "Not talking today?" Sarah asked giving him a questioning look.

He smiled before saying "nah, just thought I might listen to the sounds of nature for a little while"

"Hippy" she snorted, "anyway you ready to go?" She reached into her pocket, pulled out Tle's ball and released him. Diego simply nodded and started walking into Route 29; Sarah shook her head before picking Tle up and jogging after him. "So have you given any thought to your team?" she asked when she caught up to Diego.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about catching another psychic type, something better than a Ralts, maybe a Drowzee or a Slowpoke" he smiled looking at Dea who had gasped at the idea of being replaced. His smile grew when she started spouting off, what he thought was, reasons not to replace her. This presumptions were confirmed when he saw both Ferno and Tle roll their eyes.

"It's okay Dea, Diego's not gonna replace you. He knows better than that" Sarah smiled calming Dea down.

"Hey, I was wondering Sarah; who is stronger out of Ferno and Tle?" Diego asked looking at both Pokémon who had begun sizing each other up.

Sarah rubbed her chin in thought before saying "what level is Ferno?"

"Ahh 11, 12 something around that" he said reaching into his pant pocket to grab his Pokédex. "Yeah level 12" he confirmed.

"Okay so they're the same level, but Tle does have the type advantage-"

"I wouldn't rely solely on that" Diego interrupted.

Sarah gave him a curious look, "Does Ferno know a grass type move?"

"Growlithe's can't learn grass type moves, or electric moves in fact" Diego smiled slyly.

Sarah was now really curious about what Diego had up his sleeve. "Okay let's have a little battle to settle this" she suggested.

Diego lowered his face so that the shadow from his cap visor covered his face. "What do you think Ferno? Up for a little training?" he smiled looking down to Ferno.

"_Hell yeah" _Ferno barked excitably.

"Okay then but we can't do it here, the grass is too high for the Pokémon" Diego said scanning the field for a clearing big enough for the battle, "there a place" he said pointing to a clearing that was about 500m away.

"Okay then, let's go" Sarah smiled.

After 5 minutes or so they reached the clearing, it was a bit bigger that Diego had originally thought. Its southern edge was fringed by thick forest and the grass only came up to his ankles. On a closer look he saw that the tips of the blades were singed by something.

"Alright Diego, you go on that side" Sarah said pointing to the opposite side of the clearing from her. "This is gonna be a one on one battle so no switching out to use Dea" she explained smiling.

"Wouldn't dream of it" Diego said as he reached his side of the clearing. "You okay with sitting this one out, Dea?" she nodded in reply so Diego picked her up off his shoulder and placed her gently on the ground beside him before taking a few steps away. When Dea gave him a confused look he explained "it's so I don't step on you". When he looked back at Sarah he saw that Tle was already on the ground in front of her and she was giving him a cocky smile. "Ready Ferno" Ferno took a couple of steps towards Tle and barked intimidatingly. "Ladies first" Diego shouted to Sarah.

"Why what a gentlemen," she smiled, "Tle use Bubble" she commanded. Tle puffed out his chest before opening his mouth and unleashing a small amount of bubbles towards Ferno.

"Ferno dodge it and close down the gap" Ferno jumped to the left of the bubbles and began running towards Tle.

"Tle use Bubble again" Sarah instructed watching Ferno getting closer.

Just as Tle was about to release another attack Diego shouted; "use Ember". Ferno stopped in mid stride and unleashed a jet of fire at Tle whose Bubble attack collided with the fire causing a small explosion of steam to obscure both trainers and Pokémon for each other's sight. Diego growled to himself before a thought popped into his head, "Ferno use Tle's scent to track him" he saw Ferno put his nose to the ground and moved into the cloud of steam.

"Tle be ready to use Bubble when you see him" Sarah instructed wildly searching the steam for any shadow that might be Ferno. She was so tense that when Tle shot a short burst of Bubbles at the opposite side of their steam clearing she jumped from fright. _What was that?_ She thought to herself she glanced down at Tle who was scanning right side of the steam for any sign of their opponent.

"BITE!"

All a sudden Ferno burst from the left side of the steam and sprinted towards Tle. The next moment Tle yelped in pain as Ferno bit down on his tail. Sarah was still in shock from the surprise attack that it took her a second or two to react. "Tle use Bubble" she shouted when she snapped out of her confusion. Tle collected himself long enough to turn his head and unleash a jet of water that hit Ferno directly on the side. _That wasn't Bubble that was Water Gun_ she thought to herself as Ferno was tossed back into the now thinning steam. She could see the outline of Diego now, "Tle use Water Gun" she commanded. She had expected Tle to fire at the shadows but instead he started firing off Water Guns wildly. After Tle stopped firing there was no more steam blocking their line of sight.

Ferno was standing before Diego dripping water from his side. Before she could give a command Diego said; "okay Ferno let's finish this," he pointed at her "Dragon Claw!" Ferno began charging at Tle. Sarah stood there watching as with every step Ferno's paws became engulfed in a mutli-coloured fire. She snapped of whatever she had been in just in time to see Ferno leap at Tle, his forelegs completely covered with the fire, and Tle turn around to expose his shell to the attack. When the attack made contact Tle was thrown towards Sarah and knocked unconscious.

She couldn't believe what had just happened _he beat me with a single move_ she thought staring at the ground. She looked up when she noticed a shadow cast over Tle. Diego had walked over and now knelt in front of Tle rummaging through his bag.

"What are you doing?" she asked in a barely audible voice.

"Healing Tle," he answered pulling a potion out of his bag indicating to the three claw marks that were scratched into Tle's shell that burned with the multi-coloured flames. "I need to put out these flames before they burn through his shell" he rolled Tle over so he could help him.

Sarah sat down next to Tle and watched anxiously as Diego sprayed Tle with the potion. She looked over Diego's shoulder to see Ferno and Dea walking towards them. When they reached Diego Ferno quietly barked at him, without looking away from Tle. Diego said "he'll be fine, luckily you're not that powerful yet so it shouldn't do any lasting damage" he turned to his bag and replaced the empty potion bottle and pulled out some bandages.

Diego was about to start bandaging Tle when Sarah saw his eyes slowly open. She shot out, grabbed Tle and pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm so happy you're okay" she whispered, she could feel her eyes mist up when Diego interrupted her.

"Sarah, I need to bandage up Tle so the scratches don't get infected" he said in a soothing voice. Sarah looked down at Tle and noticed the three small ravines in his shell. She smiled at Tle then looked at Diego and smiled sheepishly before handing Tle back over to him. While Diego worked on Tle Sarah decided to check on Ferno. She got up and walked behind Diego to get to Ferno, when she crouched down to inspect him he took a couple of steps forward and sat down in front of her. When she didn't do anything Ferno stepped forward and put his head under her hand, "oh you want me to pat you" she said when she realized Ferno what he wanted. She began a rigorous rubbing of Ferno's head and body. She had found Ferno's sweet spot when suddenly he shot out of her grasp to stand beside Diego. She looked at Ferno, who was now sniffing a bandaged Tle, and then at her hand which had a few wet hairs stuck to it.

She looked confusingly at Diego who had a smile on his lips, "he used you to dry off his fur". Sarah looked at Ferno in shock, who sat between Tle and Diego wagging his tail.

"Well come on, we can't stay here all day" Diego said tossing this head towards the direction from which they came from.

"Yeah sure" she said quietly picking Tle up gently and returning him to his pokéball for some rest while Diego placed Dea on his shoulder.

* * *

They had been walking in comfortable silence for five hours when Sarah finally broke the silence with a question "So Diego how does a Growlithe learn a move like Dragon Claw, considering that even an Arcanine can't learn it? Did you cheat life?"

Sarah saw the corner of Diego's mouth turn up in a half smile "I don't know. Maybe Ferno just a really special Pokémon" he paused his smile fading, "or do you want me to say that I forced Ferno to learn Dragon Claw at the risk of his life?" he said grimly turning towards Sarah. There was a minute of awkward silence before Diego said "nah, I'm just screwing with you. I don't know how Ferno learnt Dragon Claw"

"Oh thank Arceus" she sighed relieved that she wasn't traveling with an abusive trainer.

"Wait, you actually thought I would do that to a Pokémon?" Diego said betrayal thick in his voice.

"Oh no, no, no, no I didn't mean it like that" Sarah stammered trying to cover up her mistake, she when silent when she saw Diego shaking his head. She hung her head for a few moments before looking at Diego who was snickering. She decided to test the waters with a single word; "What?"

Diego turned to her and raised one of his eyebrows, "I'm still pissed at what you said, but I can see your point" when Sarah looked at him with a confused look he continued, "we haven't see each other for over a year so for all you know I could of became some crazy, homicidal trainer. But I'm still pissed"

Sarah sighed in relief "So Dragon Claw, are you gonna use it a lot?"

"Nah, probably just use it as a last resort move" he said before turning to Dea who had began talking. "What she saying?" Diego asked Ferno.

"_There's a Pokémon nearby, about to attack us as well"_ Ferno growled moving into a fighting stance, scanning the trees ahead of him. Just as Ferno finished his sentence Diego heard two pairs of feet lightly drop onto the ground behind the group. He half turned his head until he could see the Pokémon in the corner of his eye. "Mind if I take this one?" he said to Sarah.

"Be my pleasure" she replied walking over a tree to lean on.

He turned to Ferno "how about Dea takes this one" it was less of a question and more of a suggestion. Ferno growled before walking over to where Sarah leaned on the tree. "Alright Dea you ready to do this?" Diego asked finally turning to face their opponent, which was a Sentret. "Alright let's do this" he said lifting Dea off his shoulder and placing her on the ground.

Five minutes later the Sentret lay unconscious on the ground a meter in front of Dea, who was panting. "Well that was a bit harder than I expected" Diego said running his fingers through his hair before crouching down to Dea and smiling at her, "you did amazing". Dea smiled before scrunching up her face when Diego ruffled her green hair dislodging pieces of dirt that had been caught in it during the battle.

"Well are you gonna catch it?" Sarah asked walking over to the pair, indicting to the limp Sentret.

"Ahh…." Diego scrunched up his nose in thought "nah"

"_Why not? It seems pretty strong_" Ferno barked and Sarah gave him a questioning look.

"Because I'm not one to break up a family" he replied turning around and continuing down the trail. The remainder of group watched in confusion as Diego walked away until they heard a series of rustling behind them. When they turned around they saw three other Sentret run out of the undergrowth and form a wall between the group and the unconscious Sentret. When the wall was complete a Furret walked out of the undergrowth and picked up the Sentret before turning back and vanishing into the undergrowth. The wall hissed at the group before running into the undergrowth where the Furret had disappeared to.

"Like I said didn't want to break up a family" a voice said behind the group who was all silent in shock.

"How did you..?" Sarah asked recovering from the shock.

"I saw them in the trees while the battle was going on" he answered reaching down and grabbing Dea around the waist causing her the shriek out of surprise. "Its okay, Dea, it's only me"

_Ahh okay then_ Sarah thought to herself before turning and continuing down the trail. "Hey, what's the time?" she asked when Diego caught up to her.

"About 3 o'clock. Why?"

"I was just wondering what time you wanted to set up camp for the night."

"I don't know. About 5" he replied scratching his head. "Actually it doesn't start getting dark until 7 o'clock so we'll set up camp about 6:15"

Sarah nodded in agreement before she suddenly stopped walking "wait that means that I have to walk for another three and quarter hours"

"Yeah basically" Diego smiled.

She moaned and hung her head before continuing walking before mumbling; "I can't believe I have to do this for a year".

When Diego heard this he burst out laughing "oh come on, it's not gonna be that bad"

Sarah shook her head but couldn't help a quiet laugh escaping her lips. She looked over at Diego who had calmed down and was now just grinning "let's just get this over with".

* * *

By the time 6:15 finally rolled by Diego's grin had been replaced by a mindless expression while Sarah and Ferno had begun dragging their feet, even Tle and Dea, who hadn't done any walking, were beginning to look exhausted. The group had stopped a few times for food or if something tried to battle them but otherwise they hadn't stopped walking.

"Diego can we stop?" Sarah moaned slowing down significantly causing Diego to gain about five meters before his brain registered that she'd asked him something.

"Huh?" Diego groaned, stopping and turning around see Sarah standing behind him. She stood there slightly leaning forward looking at him with pleading eyes through the hair that had fallen in front of her face at some point during the walk. He sighed and began looking around the track for a clearing. After a minute he turn back to Sarah and smiled at her "come on then" he indicated towards a small clearing just off the track. He turned and began heading towards the clearing with Sarah racing ahead with new found energy. When Sarah reached the centre of the clearing she threw off her bag and collapsed onto the ground, sinking into the shallow grass barely giving Tle enough time to dive off her shoulder and land on the ground. Diego soon reached the centre and unslung his backpack before gently placing it next to Sarah's bag. After sitting down next to Sarah and Dea jumping off his shoulder he moved into a lying position next to Sarah.

"I've never felt so happy to feel grass under my back" she said in a barely audible voice.

"Ahem to that" Diego said moving his arm as Dea and Ferno came over and settled against his right side. About a minute later he felt something brush against his left arm so he turned his head to see that Sarah had fallen asleep, moved onto her side and put one of her arms on his. "I'll sleep for ten minutes then get started on a fire" he said to himself before closing his eyes.

Diego woke up to a wet, black nose nudging his cheek. "Argh, why did you wake me up Ferno?" he said slowly pulling himself to a sitting position. He turned to his left when he realized his arm had been released and saw that Sarah was lying on her side facing away from him.

"_You told me to wake you up in ten minutes"_ Ferno barked wagging his tail.

"Ahh…. Good job man" Diego smiled before lowering his voice when Dea began shuffling around in her sleep, "let's go grab some firewood". When the pair stood up Diego leaned back down and picked up Dea and placed her next to Sarah's sleeping form.

As the two began moving off they stopped when they hear a voice behind them; "_where are you two going off to?" _Tle asked from beside Sarah.

"_We're gonna go collect some firewood"_ Ferno barked.

"_Need any help?" _

"Nah, you stay here and protect the girls. Call us if anyone comes by" Diego said before turning around and heading into the forest with Ferno beside him. It wasn't long before the pair had a barrier of trees and shrubbery blocking off the line of sight between the two groups. "Okay, Ferno, remember to look for dead wood because that stuff burns better then wet wood"

Ferno gave Diego a look like he was an idiot, _"I know how to collect wood_".

"Whatever you say" Diego shrugged walking over to a dead-looking tree to snap off its branches.

After about 10 minutes the pair had collected a reasonable amount of wood and had begun heading back to the camp. "_So have you giving any thought to any members of our team?_" Ferno barked.

"Yeah, my brother told me that it is best to try and catch a Water type, a Fire type and a Grass type", when Ferno gave Diego a confused look he just shrugged before saying "well at least I got a Fire type".

Ferno grunted in agreement, "_was catching Dea part of your plan?_"

"Arceus no, I was not planning to catch a psychic type at all" when Ferno raised an eyebrow Diego explained, "the whole dark Guardian thing"

"_Is it the same with other types, like Ghost?_"

"Surprisingly no, I don't why it's like that. Hey maybe I should replace Dea with a ghost type like Gastly" Diego said jokingly while reaching out and pulling apart a bush to allow Ferno to go through. Ferno just snorted in reply. When they walked back into the clearing all the slumbering creatures were awake and doing something. Sarah had pulled out both hers and Diego's sleeping bags and laid them next to their respective bags, Dea and Tle had begun rummaging through the bags to find any kind of edible food that they could have for dinner.

None of this group seemed to notice that Diego and Ferno had entered the clearing and it wasn't until Diego dumped the armful of sticks right next to Sarah did she jump out of fright. "Having fun?" Diego asked, laughing at Sarah's fright while Sarah whipped around.

"Oh haha, very fun Diego" she punched him on his upper arm, "I thought I told you to stop scaring me"

"Oh come on, it's just a bit of harmless fun" he crouched down and began arranging the pile of sticks into a pyramid, leaving a few off to the side to be used as fuel later, and Sarah mumbled something about the bathroom. When he was done he called to Ferno who had been helping Dea and Tle gather the food. When Ferno reached him Diego asked "you should probably light the fire tonight"

"_Why?" _Ferno barked.

"Because we're not that far from the trail and someone might see me doing it" after this explanation Ferno turned to the pyramid and used Ember on it.

While the flames took hold of sticks Dea and Tle dragged over a container containing some large pieces of Ducklett meat that had been left over from their meal last night, well when they 'dragged' the container it actually meant Dea moving it with Confusion while Tle walked underneath it in case Dea dropped it.

By the time they reached the fire Sarah had returned and was looking greedily at the food. "How much longer till the food is ready?" she asked going into her bag and pulling a pack of 7 plastic plates.

"Another 5 to 10 minutes" Diego replied taking one of the leftover sticks and skewering the pieces of meat onto it and placing them over the fire.

"Food's ready" Diego called about 8 minutes later, while Diego pulled the pieces of meat off the stick Sarah handed him plates that already had a few slices of berry on each. When Diego was placing the second-to-last piece onto a plate for Sarah the last piece decided to fall into the fire getting covered in ash.

Everyone in the group, except Diego, gasped at the ruined food. "It's alright, guys" Diego said before reaching into the fire and picking up the meat.

When he moved to put it on Sarah's plate she protested "Don't put that thing on my plate" snatching her plate away from Diego.

"Fine more for me" Diego said eating the ash covered meat. When he handing Dea and Ferno their plates he saw that all the Pokémon were staring at him, mouths agape. "What?"

"_How did you not get burnt? You put your hand in the fire" _Tle asked, the other too shocked to speak.

"Oh, remember I'm part fire so I don't get affected by it. I don't feel cold either, well actually I feel the extreme cold but that's it"

"_Okay then?" _Ferno barked still confused but just gave in and began eating and the others soon followed suit.

By the time they had decided to go to sleep the light of the day had vanished and had been replaced by a blanket of black dotted by a million points of light. Diego and Sarah lay silently in their sleeping bags staring up at the sky, the fire still burnt strongly and was throwing out enough light for some of the trees on the edge of the clearing to be visible. There was a light northern wind blowing into the clearing causing the fire to flicker. Diego had placed a blanket over himself, Ferno and Dea because they had complained about some cold the wind had brought. He was just about fall asleep when he heard Sarah shiver and curse about the cold.

"Dea get up for a second" Diego asked as he propped himself up on his elbows. When Dea had slid off him he wiggled out of his sleeping bag and gathered up the blanket. Sarah had just cursed again when Diego threw his blanket over her and began tucking the sides under her.

"Diego? What are you doing?" she asked trying to sit up.

"Giving you another blanket, I don't want you catching a cold" he smiled pushing her back down.

"Oh, what about you and Dea and Ferno?" she asked glad that there wasn't enough light about for Diego to see her blushing.

"Don't worry, I'll handle it" Diego said turning back to his sleeping bag and getting back into it. When Dea had lain down on Diego's chest again she shivered and said something.

"_Dea says it's cold now"_ Ferno growled from Diego's right side.

"Don't worry, it won't be soon" Diego responded.

Soon Dea felt heat radiating out from below her and she propped herself up on one elbow and looked at Diego, half expecting him to be on fire but instead he simply lay there normally. "_How?"_ she asked knowing Diego wouldn't understand.

"Fire" he whispered guessing Dea's question. With that the whole clearing fell into silence except for the crackle of the fire.

* * *

Light cut through Sarah's dreams when she accidently opened one of her eyes causing her to groan in annoyance. She shut the eye again and tried to get back to sleep but now she was aware of the light on the other side of her eyelids and it wasn't going to let her sleep. To fix the problem she flipped onto her stomach and buried her head into her makeshift pillow. She had about 30 seconds of peace before something began poking her shoulder.

"Diego, bug off and let me sleep" she growled with her face still buried in her pillow. When the poking continued she angrily turn to the person and was surprised to find a very worried Dea standing next to her.

"What's the matter Dea?" Sarah asked sitting up and seeing what the problem was. Diego's sleeping bag lay in the same place it had last night but the man himself was missing along with Ferno. Sarah wasn't worried until she began searching around the sleeping bag for any evidence about Diego's whereabouts. All the years she had known Diego he had always left a note of some kind to tell someone what he was doing, so she started getting worried when she didn't find one.

"Where are you?" she muttered to herself remembering that Diego could easily defend himself if he got in any trouble. _But he wouldn't defend himself it would alert others about what he is _she thought to herself. She looked to her right when she heard Dea whimper next to her. "It's okay Dea, Diego'll be fine" she soothed Dea who looked ready to fall apart. She decided that the best course of action was to start breakfast to keep both hers and Dea's mind off Diego.

She was it middle of trying to relight the fire, and failing horribly, when she heard twigs snapping off to her right. Whipping her head in the direction of the sound she saw that Dea was closer to the noise than she was, she scampered forward to get in front of Dea. The sound grew louder while Sarah searched frantically for Tle's pokéball behind her without taking her eyes off the forest. When she couldn't find it she turned around and saw that Tle's pokéball was next to her bag about five meters away. She jumped when Dea made a sound next to her causing her to whip around ready to fight using Dea but all the tension loosened when she saw a Growlithe walk out of a gap in the forest. Further relief came when she saw Diego step into the clearing. Dea rushed forward and began hugging Ferno before hugging Diego in turn. While Sarah stood up relief stopped coming and was replaced with rage and anger.

She stormed toward Diego, who now had Dea in his arms. "Where have you been?!" she roared not caring who heard.

"I when for a run" Diego said calmly looking up from Dea to meet her eyes.

"I was…" she stopped herself, "Dea was worried about you".

Diego looked at her and she knew that he had heard what she had meant to say. "Well Dea doesn't need to worry about me. I can look after myself" he said scratching Dea in between her horns causing Dea to mew happily.

Sarah was now angry at herself for showing Diego weakness but was still mainly angry at Diego so she turned and stormed towards her bag.

She had begun packing away her makeshift pillow when Diego spoke to her. "There's a stream nearby. I'm gonna go wash myself off, okay" Diego paused waiting for a reply. When he didn't get one he continued "I'll be back in about 15 minutes". When he was gone Sarah turned around and looked at Dea who sat in front of Diego's bag looking of food. Her stomach growled making her remember the breakfast she had been making. When she pulled the food out of her bag she remembered her horrible attempts she had made to start the fire and wished she had asked Diego to light it, but when she turned to start again she saw that there was a small fire burning.

Fifteen minutes later Diego returned with a towel around his waist and water dripping from his hair. Sarah had finished making breakfast and had a plate for Ferno and Diego ready. Diego threw on his clothes while Sarah had her back to him and when he sat down in front of fire she saw steam rising off his body and hair.

Sarah decided to break the silence first, "How much longer until we get to Cherrygrove?"

"Just over a day and a half if we walk quickly, but we could reach there in two and a half days if we take our time" he said putting another berry in his mouth.

"Why did you go for a run? You should have been exhausted after yesterday"

"I don't know I just did" Diego replied shrugging. "Anyway we should probably head off soon; it's already 8:45" Sarah grunted in agreement her mouth to full to talk.

* * *

Diego and Sarah had been walking for roughly 5 hours, with regular stops, and neither of them felt as tired as the day before. Even Dea who had insisted on walking for the last hour wasn't tired. The group had come across a building and had decided to stop for a snack in its shade. While Diego was preparing a snack Sarah had wandered off to see what the building was.

"Sarah, food's ready" Diego shouted up to the sky before passing over a berry each for Ferno and Dea.

A minute later Sarah came walking into clearing beside the building, "well this place is a gate" Sarah informed picking up her plate of sliced berries.

"To what?"

"The guy at the desk said it's just to a place at the south of Route 46. Not very large just a big clearing"

"Sounds like a training ground" Diego said with berry juice dribbling down his chin.

"Mmm" Sarah mumbled her mouth to full of berry flesh.

"'kay lets go check it out after we finish our snack" Diego instructed before pausing and looking at Tle, "oh and Tle, I need to change your bandages".

17 minutes when past and the group now stood at the entrance to the southern Route 46. Sarah had been right when he had called the place a big clearing. On two sides thick forest rose up creating an impassable wall, its branches teeming with Pokémon. On the northern side a sheer cliff rose up roughly 7 meters making that way impassable for anyone who wanted to head up that way without a strong enough Pokémon. The clearing itself had grass that hid all the Pokémon from sight but neither Diego nor Sarah were fooled because random patches of the grass continually moved in different directions.

"Well we're off to do some training" Diego said stepping into the grass followed by Ferno and Dea who quickly became swallowed by the grass.

"What about me and Tle?" Sarah said giving Diego a questioning look.

Diego turned back to face her "you can train Tle by yourself, right?".

"Yeah"

"Then train him" Diego said turning back around and heading towards the western side of the clearing. "Meet back here in an hour's time" he shouted back.

Sarah stood there for a moment watching Diego's receding shape. "Alrighty Tle, let's go do some training" she started walking towards the northern cliffs.

Not long after reaching the cliffs she was challenged by a Geodude, which Tle beat, and then two minutes later she was attacked by a Rattata, who she beat after a slight struggle. After two slightly tough battles she had Tle resting while she talked to him. "Do you reckon I should catch another Pokémon? You know someone for the team. I mean Diego already has two Pokémon so why shouldn't I? You know what, next Pokémon to attack us I'll catch. How does that sound?" she finally turned to Tle who had the most confused look on his face and she sweat dropped. "Did you get any of that?" Tle nodded and started walking towards grass and Sarah followed. They didn't see a Pokémon for 2 or 3 minutes before they wandered upon a Spearow feeding on some worms.

"Alright Tle when I say so use Water Gun" Sarah said crouching down in the grass to hid herself from the Spearow. The Spearow had just finished swallowing a worm when she whispered to Tle "now" and Tle jumped out the grass and hit the Spearow on its side with the Water gun. While the Spearow was stunned Sarah made her next move, "Tle use Tackle!" with that Tle charged forward and knocked into Spearow, causing it to cry out. Just as Sarah was about to launch another attack the Spearow jumped into the air and flew into the sun.

"No wait" Sarah shouted after it taking a few steps in the direction it had flown. "Oh come on!" she shouted to the sky causing a flock of Pidgey to fly up the cliff. Sarah hung her head in defeat before she sat down on the ground. She brought her head up to look at Tle who stood there staring defiantly at the sun, "Tle stop that or you'll go blind". When he didn't Sarah shielded her eyes with her hand before looking up that when she noticed a shadow over the sun. Then she heard a cry and she stood up and looked at the shadow again. _Has the shadow grown? _She thought looking closer and realized that the shadow was growing bigger meaning that it was getting closer.

"Tle get ready with a..." she started before being cut off by Tle crying out because the shadow had hit him with Peck.

"Tle use a Water Gun to knock it out of the sky" Sarah commanded before Tle fired off a Water Gun that was dodged by the shadow which was the Spearow from before. The Spearow turned in mid air and began speeding towards Tle with another Peck attack.

Thinking quickly Sarah commanded Tle to use Withdraw, with Tle safely inside his shell the Spearow swooped up and turned for another attack when Tle returned from his shell. "Tle use Tackle" with that instruction Tle popped out of the shell and began charging at the still airborne Spearow. The Spearow took its opportunity to launch another Peck attack.

Sarah waited until the Spearow was close enough before executing her plan, "Tle jump and use Withdraw" when Tle followed the instructions the Spearow was hit with power of the Tackle but was instead hit by Tle's hardened shell. When the duo hit the ground, Tle on his feet and the Spearow on its back, Sarah continued her plan. "Tle use Water Gun to pin it in place" she began unzipping pockets of her bag looking for a pokéball while Tle hit the Spearow with a steady stream of water keeping it pinned. When Sarah found a pokéball she rushed forward and told Tle to stop before gently tossing the pokéball at the semi-conscious Spearow. When the ball stopped moving about she scooped it up and let out a little squeal, "yes I caught a Pokémon" she shouted before quickly glancing around suddenly embarrassed by her display.

"Come on Tle" she said to a grinning Squirtle before starting towards the gate, Tle's grin soon on her face.

"Hey, what's with the smile?" Diego asked when Sarah reached the gate.

"Oh nothing, I just did something incredible" she said trying to sound casual but she squeezed the pokéball that she clutched in her left hand.

"So who's the unlucky Pokémon?" Diego asked leaning up against the building.

"What?" Sarah said mystified.

Diego nodded towards the pokéball in her hand before raising an eyebrow. "Oh you mean this?" she said rising her hand to look at the Pokémon inside the ball, her smile growing. When Diego nodded she explained what had happened while he'd been training.

"So what's its name?" he asked when Sarah had finished her explanation.

"I don't know yet. I want to find out its gender first"

"Well here use my Pokédex" Diego said reaching into his back pocket to grab his Pokédex out.

"Ah I don't think so, I'll use my own" Sarah said unslinging her bag and pulling out her Pokédex. After scanning the Spearow pokéball she announced, "It's a girl".

"Okay so what's its name?"

"Mmm" Sarah paused at the thought, "Spera".

"Spera?" Diego asked with a raised eyebrow. "Whatever, it's your choice" he reached into pocket and pulled out a pokéball, "come on Dea, meet the newest addition to the group".

Sarah waited until the other three Pokémon were lined up before releasing Spera and introducing her to the group.

A minute later all the Pokémon were chatting amongst themselves when Diego appeared beside Sarah. "Another day or so until we reach Cherrygrove" he said watching the Pokémon.

"Yeah" Sarah said too happy to say anything else.

"She's lucky" Diego said, when Sarah gave him a confused look he continued, "To be part of the group" he smiled. "Come on time to go" he nudged her.

"Yeah" Sarah said looking at her two Pokémon.

* * *

Diego had been telling the truth when he had said it would take them a further day to reach Cherrygrove. The group reached Cherrygrove about 5 o'clock the following day and signed into the Pokémon Centre for a place to stay. The first day in Cherrygrove Diego started training Ferno, Dea, Tle and Spera for their very first gym battle in the next town.

* * *

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all those who read this chapter.


	9. Chapter 8

"Tell me again why we had to stop for 2 weeks at Cherrygrove?" Diego asked reaching into a pack of chocolate cookies and pulling one out.

"For many reasons: we need to stock up on supplies,…" Sarah started, watching a Ledyba crawl along a nearby tree branch.

"Doesn't take 2 weeks." Diego interrupted.

"… You had to train the Pokémon,…"

"I was done after the first week." Diego interrupted again.

"… I wanted to sleep in a comfortable bed." Sarah concluded

"We were only out in Route 29 for two nights." Diego paused waiting for another reason but when Sarah didn't continue Diego reached into the pack and pulled out one for Dea, "Is that it?"

"Well are you going to interrupt me anymore?"

"Nah I'm done." Diego said before looking over to the left and stopping suddenly.

"What's up?" Sarah said looking back at her friend who was now staring intently into a gap in the thick trees on the side of the track. She looked at Diego's Pokémon who were looking up at him, as they were unable to see above the undergrowth. Sarah's curiosity got the better of her but when she took a step toward Diego he simply nodded towards whatever he was looking at and turned towards her and smiled.

"Huh?" he said starting back down the track.

"What were you staring at?" Sarah asked walking after Diego.

"Nothing." he stated, his eyes glazing over before he reached into the cookie pack, pulling two out and stuffing them into his mouth.

"Diego I kn…"

"It was nothing, okay." He said in a tone that meant that the conversation was over.

After a pause in which Diego ate another cookie and passed another one to Dea Sarah decided to speak: "can I have a cookie?"

Diego just smiled and pointed the open end of the pack towards her.

It wouldn't take long for Sarah to find out what Diego had been looking at. In fact she found out that night.

After a pre-prepared dinner Diego and Sarah had settled into their sleeping bag. Diego lay there reading a book while Sarah had settled down for an early night as she was unexpectedly tired after the day of walking. She must have been lying in her sleeping bag for 15 minutes when she felt her eyelids become lead and slow drag her into sleep. Just before she fell asleep she mumbled goodnight to Diego.

She wasn't sure what the time was when she woke up but the mixture of night sky and smoldering embers told her she must have been asleep for a couple of hours. She rolled over to get into a better position, making sure not to crush Tle. When she was adjusting herself she noticed that there was a significant lack of body in Diego's sleeping bag. She sat up to make sure he wasn't just hiding.

When Sarah saw that Diego wasn't anywhere in the clearing she decided to call out, "Diego, Diego where are you?" she called in a loud whisper, careful not to wake the Pokémon. When there was no response she snuck out of her sleeping bag and walked very quietly over to the outline of the clearing before repeating the call. She had just finished the call when she heard a voice.

"But I don't understand why you followed me here." it said in a very anger tone. It was this tone that made Sarah realized that it was Diego talking. There was a series of barks and growls before Diego spoke next, "but I don't need you anymore. You don't need to protect me anymore, I'm thirteen now and I can look after myself." With this Sarah began sneaking towards Diego's voice, being careful not to step on anything that might stop the conversation.

There was a rustle of dry leaves as something moved close by, "I don't need a guardian, I am the Guardian" Diego said in a very tight voice, Sarah could hear the anger and aggression in it. There was a strange grunt breathing that followed this that sounded like a kind of chuckling. While this happened Sarah peaked around a thick bush and saw what Diego was talking to: a large Absol was walking off a flat rock, which Sarah suspected that it had been sitting on. This Absol must have stood about four-and-a-half feet tall. Its white fur seemed to shine in the moonlight, its horn seemed sharpened to the point it seemed to shine like the fur. It turned gracefully to Diego, who stood beside the rock with a straight rigid back and fists tightly clenched. When the Absol finished chuckling it looked up at Diego, who was a few inches taller than it, and waited.

Diego spoke after a moment "Just go back to Hoenn; there's plenty of legendaries to watch over me here. I need you to watch over my family there, okay" he spoke in such a quiet voice Sarah barely caught what he said. The Absol stared at Diego for a moment before barking and turning towards an opening on the other side of the clearing from where Sarah crouched. "Yeah I will" Diego said turning so he could watch the Absol walk away.

After the Absol had disappeared into the trees Diego visibly relaxed, his shoulders when slack and he hung his head slightly. He stood there for half a minute before turning his head halfway towards Sarah's bush. "You can come out, Sarah" he said surprising Sarah.

"How did you know I was here?" she said standing up. She saw a corner of Diego's mouth curl up in a small smile. "Who was that?" she asked after Diego didn't reply, walking over to where he stood.

"You remember how I absorbed an Absol first?" his smile fading

"Was that him?" Sarah nodded to which Diego nodded slowly, "what was he doing here?"

"His job" Diego answered his eyes glazing over.

There was a pause before Diego spoke "we should probably get back to the camp" he raised his head to look her in the eye.

"Yeah lets go" Sarah said turning back towards the direction she had come from.

* * *

It had been two days since Diego had been visited by the Absol and he had been acting distant to the others since then. Only talking when it was essential. Whenever someone tried to bring up the Absol, Diego quickly shut the conversation down, refusing to talk about it. This wasn't helping his Pokémon at all, Dea could sense Diego uneasiness and this was causing her to become uneasy and Ferno could generally feel the atmosphere around Diego and was getting annoyed by it. Sarah was even feeling the effects of Diego, with her travelling partner in a mood she had no one to talk to so she had resorted to having one way conversations with the Pokémon.

It was the fourth day of their walk along Route 30 and Diego had just wandered into their campsite for the previous night after finishing his first 5 kilometre run. He had been feeling crap for the past two days but now had a bit of a think about what had happened and he felt better now. Diego's exercise t-shirt was plastered to his body with the thick layer of sweat that had developed all over his body during the run. As he peeled it off he caught the smell when it when past his nose making him screw up his face. On the final day of walking along Route 29 Sarah hadn't stopped complaining about his stench but he had never been able to smell his own sweat. The t-shirt had smelt clean after Diego had washed it at the dry cleaners in Cherrygrove but that all changed with the amount of sweat on the t-shirt now. He walked towards his sleeping bag where Dea and Ferno slept; he had told Ferno to sit this run out. He sat down, between his sleeping bag and the smoldering remains of last night's fire, and pulled off his shoes to let them air out before they started walking later. He had tossed the t-shirt beside him and was digging around in his bag for the towel he used to dry off after a wash when he heard Sarah mumble in her sleep. He turned to her sleeping form and a sadistic idea popped into his head. Diego found the towel and slung it over his shoulder before standing and picking up the sweaty t-shirt. He walked over to where Sarah slept and crouched down next to her. After some thought he placed the t-shirt on top of Sarah's face and moved it about until her face could be seen through one of the arm holes. Once Diego finished he stood up and looked at his handiwork with a grin on his face before he turned around and began heading in the direction of a small river a kilometre away.

_There must be an easier way to wash then this _Diego thought while walking back to the campsite, _maybe I could get Tle to hose me off. _Diego stepped around a thorn bush and entered the campsite only to find it completely deserted. The fire was still smoldering away and the grass was crushed flat where the sleeping bags had been located but other than that there was no trace of Sarah or the Pokémon or any of their gear. Diego walked over to the remnants of the fire feeling very confused.

"Sarah, Sarah where you at?" he called skyward. When there was no responds he looked down at the embers and noticed a very specific shape of ashes on the fire. He crouched down and ran his hand through the ashes. He pulled up a piece of cloth that had not completely burnt and shook it to get rid of the ash. _Strange my running shirt is red _he thought seeing the cloth, to test further he held it up to his nose and took a smell _"_well it smells like my shirt" he mumbled pulling the cloth away from his nose. He heard a twig snap behind him causing him to shoot up and spin around only to find a fist viciously hit his left cheek and pain shot from that point back through his skull. Diego was stunned for a second before he threw up his arms to cover face from further assault blocking another punch that was aimed for his right cheek. His assailant decided to stop punching his face and instead began aiming for his shoulders and stomach. Diego kept his face down so he couldn't see who was assaulting him. After three punches connected with his stomach and right shoulder he finally broke cover and grabbed the wrist of a punch aimed for his left shoulder, he pulled back his free hand and was ready to deliver a blow to the person when he saw who it was.

"Sarah, what in Arceus' name are you doing." he gasped letting go of her wrist and stepping back to get out of her range. He shook his hand when he discovered that it was burning with black fire, extinguishing the flame.

"Getting revenge." she growled through clenched teeth.

"For what? What did I do to you?" Diego asked rubbing his cheek which stung from the punch.

"Oh I don't know, I felt like beating up you." she threw her arms up before spinning around and taking a few steps, then spinning back around. "I was sleeping quite comfortably but this smell woke me up and when I woke up I found a stinky, disgusting t-shirt on My FACE." she yelled taking a step towards Diego but he countered by side-stepping putting the fire between the two. "So you know what I did with that t-shirt? I threw it on the fire."

"Wait what?! That was my only other t-shirt I brought on this journey and you burnt it."

"Oh don't try shifting the blame onto me. You're the one in the wrong here." she yelled back. With that she turned around and stormed towards a gap in the trees.

Diego followed her "so what you decided to burn my t-shirt and beat me up?"

"I'm done with the conversation Diego" she said not turning around.

"Well I'm not" he said but stopped when he saw a small clearing with all their Pokémon and gear in it. Most of the Pokémon were huddled together next to the bags, Diego noticed that all his things were tossed carelessly on the ground while Sarah's were neatly placed, the Pokémon were most likely afraid of all the yelling. Ferno walked over to Diego.

"_What happened?"_ he barked tilting his head and nodding towards Diego's cheek.

"Nothing, Sarah and I just had a bit of an argument." Diego said glancing over to Sarah who was rummaging through her bag.

Ferno looked up at Diego and Diego realized that Ferno wasn't buying it. "_You know it's wrong to lie to your Pokémon. Your cheek's bleeding."_

Diego touched his cheek and felt liquid on his fingertips. He walked over to his bag, which contained the first aid kit, and grabbed out a plaster. Dea walked over to Diego and pushed his leg to get his attention. Diego looked down and smiled "everything's gonna be okay Dea." he scratched between her horns.

* * *

Diego and Sarah had been walking for two hours in complete silence. Normally there would be the sound of Pokémon chatting amongst themselves, which Diego could usually understand depending on the Pokémon, but at the moment it was silent. The wild Pokémon must have sensed the hostility because they hadn't been challenged since they started walking. They both walked on opposite sides of the track. Diego had a plaster on his left cheek even though the bleeding had stopped. He had spent the last two hours trying to convince himself that Sarah had overreacted and he was the victim but the longer he spent thinking the more he saw that it was probably, maybe, slightly, his fault. "Bugger." he muttered to himself as he realized that he was the one that was going to have to break the silence.

"What?" Sarah said turning to him. Obviously she had heard Diego.

"Huh?" Diego grunted trying to act thick.

"You said something." Sarah insisted.

Diego just frowned like he didn't know what Sarah was talking about. At this Sarah huffed angrily and turned back to the track. Diego stayed silent for a half a minute before he felt a nudge against his leg. He looked down and saw Ferno looking up at him before Ferno tossed his in Sarah's direction. Diego looked up at her before looking down at Ferno and mouthing "screw you." Ferno just smiled smugly. Diego sighed before taking a few diagonal steps towards Sarah but making sure not to get too close.

"Ahh Sarah." he mumbled looking at his feet.

"Yes Diego?" Sarah said turning to look at him.

"I'm ah…" Diego stammered. _Oh come on Diego be a man and get it over with _a voice inside his head told him sternly. He stopped walking, lifted his head to look Sarah in the eye and took a deep breath. "Sarah about what happened this morning I am…" he trailed off looking over to his left. He had heard a cry from off in that direction. It had been very faint but he had only just heard it. He waited a moment to hear if there was going to be another one but there wasn't. He turned back to Sarah who was staring at him with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't remember what he had been saying beforehand. "What was I saying?" he asked Sarah.

"You were apologizing about this morning." She sighed.

"Oh yeah, what I was saying was that I'm s…" Diego trailed off again. _Okay I definitely heard something that time._ Diego turned and looked at Ferno who was staring at him. "Did you hear that?"

"_Hear what? Your failed apology, yeah I heard that." _he barked back.

But Diego wasn't listening. He had turn back to his left and was watching the forest. "Diego is everything okay?" Sarah asked watching her friend. It wasn't often that Diego was confused; he was one of those people that always knew what was happening. Instead of replying Diego started slowly walking towards the trees on the left side of the track. "Diego where are you going?" Sarah asked exchanging worried looks with Ferno. When she looked back she saw that Diego was gone. "Diego? Diego!" she shouted after him. Sarah stood there for a moment waiting, expecting Diego to jump out from the trees and scare her. When that didn't happen she turned to Ferno, "Ferno can you track him?" Ferno nodded "alright let's track him" Sarah instructed walking towards the forest following Ferno.

Diego walked quickly in the direction of the ever increasing cries, growing in volume as he got closer to their source. He knew he shouldn't have just walked off from the others but the cries were drawing him towards their source. He stopped for a second when he noticed three vicious looking scars running down a tree trunk. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself feeling the scars, _their fresh_. Another cry sounded from the other side of the tree. In an instant Diego ripped off his bag and tossed it against the base of the tree before setting off in the direction of the cry at a run. With every cry Diego increased his speed until the branches are whizzing past. Diego wasn't sure how far he had run when he burst through a thick part of shrubbery snapping branches off it.

In front of him stood a Nidoking. It stood at roughly the same height as Diego. It would have been facing away from him if Diego had been stealthy instead of bursting into clearing. Now the purple beast has half turned to face Diego. Its jaw is hanging half open with saliva dripping out from in between its teeth. The Nidoking's armored back rippled as it raised itself to try and intimidate Diego. One of its ears pivoted to face Diego while the other stays on whatever's on the other side of it. Diego began moving around the Nidoking making sure not to break eye contact. He had taken five steps when he hears a cry again making him glance away from the Nidoking to see what caused it. Ten metres from the Nidoking huddled a group of three Oddishs and two Glooms, they were murmuring amongst themselves glancing between Diego and the Nidoking, probably working out who was more of a danger to them. _Why can't I understand them? _He thought to himself turning back to the Nidoking, who was now snorting aggressively at Diego. Diego stopped moving once he was in line with the Nidoking and the Grass types but realized what the Nidoking had done. Diego now stood opposite the Nidoking but instead of him being in between it and the Grass types the group was between him and the Nidoking. He cursed himself for being so stupid.

The Nidoking lowered itself onto all fours while it began laughing, "_Pathetic human."_ it boomed.

It whipped around its tail while it waited for Diego to move. _I can't let it hurt the group _Diego thought glancing at its tail again. _Beware of the tail, that thing will snap you in half if it hits you _a voice said to him, Diego realized it was the same voice from before with Sarah. He moved it a fighting position. This movement must have been what the Nidoking had been waiting for because it unleashed an almighty roar that shook Diego to the bone and sent the group into a flurry of cries. While the Nidoking continued the roar something clicked inside of Diego and he unleashed a roar of his own that seemed to stop the Nidoking mid roar. When Diego finished his roar his ears were ringing, he saw the Nidoking snort and begin charging towards Diego. Diego started sprinting towards the Nidoking. The Nidoking was about half a metre from the group and looked about ready to flatten them when Diego hit it at close to top speed. He wasn't sure if he punched it, tackled it or head butted it but Diego did stop moving after the hit while the Nidoking when flying backwards and slammed into the trees behind it, breaking one. Diego stood up and stared at the Nidoking that was now pulling itself off the ground. It swayed for a moment before growling at Diego, in response Diego clenched his right hand into a fist and set it on fire. He saw the Nidoking look at Diego's burning fist then back at his face. Even though humans may have turned Guardians into unheard of legends and myths Pokémon hadn't and tales of Guardian's abilities were known amongst Pokémon, this Nidoking appeared to no exception. Diego smiled while he watched the Nidoking weigh up its options. After a minute of watching Diego the Nidoking stood up and roared at Diego, a smaller roar than the first one, and began lumbering towards him. _Here we go _the voice said while darkness began slowly creeping in from the corners of his eyes.

* * *

Sarah had been following Ferno for Arceus knows how long when Ferno stopped and sniffed a bush in front of him. Sarah had been worried since Diego had disappeared but when they had found his bag against a tree with scratch marks on it she had become outright terrified for her best friend. Ferno's sharp bark cut through Sarah's thoughts. She looked down at him; he stood in front of a bush he had been sniffing looking up at her. For the seventh time today Sarah wished she could understand Pokémon and envied Diego. Ferno barked again, quieter this time, and tossed his head towards the bush so Sarah set Diego's and hers packs against the bush and reached forward to part it for Ferno. She had been concentrating on not getting a thorn lodged into her hand so she had not had a chance to see what was on the other side of the bush but Ferno's low growl caught her attention. When Sarah looked into the clearing on the other side of the bush she quite a strange scene.

A Nidoking lay unconscious on one side of the clearing propped up against a broken tree. There were patches of charred grass scattered around the clearing, obviously created by fire. On the other side of the clearing from the Nidoking crouched a boy with ripped clothes. The boy crouched in front of a group of Oddishs and Glooms with his hands on one particular Oddish. While Sarah watched she saw something black seep out of the boy's fingers and cover the Oddish. The boy keep his fingers on the Oddish for a second after it had become completely covered by the black before he removed them and the blackness seemed to evaporate from the Oddish. After all the blackness was gone from the Oddish the boy stood up "well that's better, don't ya think?" he said to the group who began chatting as a reply while the boy flexed his hands. Ferno barked next to Sarah causing the boy to spin around and face the pair.

"What are you guys doing here?" Diego asked starting to walk towards Sarah and Ferno with a slight limp.

"Chasing after you." Sarah answered but Diego wasn't listening to her.

Instead Diego was crouched down in front of Ferno who was barking. "What I just did? That was absorbing. I couldn't understand the Oddish or Gloom so I absorbed one of them." Diego explained.

While Diego was talking to Ferno Sarah was examining him. Diego's blue t-shirt was ripped at both sleeves and had a hole at the back, his track pants were missing its right leg and the left leg was barely hanging on. Diego had streams of blood running down his left arm, his right leg was bleeding from the knee and he had a new cut running down the right side of his jawbone. Overall Diego looked like a mess.

"Ahh Diego, you're bleeding…. a lot." Sarah said putting a hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch which make Sarah pull her hand away immediately.

"Yeah I guess I am." he smiled looking at his arm.

"I think we should set up camp here for tonight." Sarah said walking back to grab the bags.

"But it's not even midday yeah." Diego shouted after her.

"Yeah well we can't travel with you bleeding so much."

"I guess so." Diego sighed before standing up and walking towards the unconscious Nidoking, "you set up camp I'll get rid of this thing."

"Fine." Sarah said watching Diego throw the Nidoking over his shoulder, "how can you do that, he must weigh sixty kilos?"

"Guardian, remember I'm a lot stronger than you." Diego said limping into the forest.

* * *

It would take another day for Diego to heal and a further day of rest, instructed by Sarah, before the group would set out again towards Violet city and the first Johto gym. Once they got back on Route 30 they made quick progress through the Route battling some rookie trainers and the occasional wild Pokémon. Sarah had lost a battle to some kid with a team of Rattata so Diego had offered to train her Pokémon to rematch the kid, she won the rematch. After a day and a half of walking they reached a large clearing that had a small, rocky mountain on the north side.

"The Dark Cave, ahh sounds ominous." Diego smiled reading the weathered sign that stood next to a hole in the side of the mountain, could be the entrance.

"Well most things with Dark in their name sounds ominous, eh Dark Guardian?" she smiled while pulling out their supply of food, which was running really low. "I'm so happy that we're gonna be in Violet city this time tomorrow."

"Well we might not be able to make it to Violet by tomorrow." Diego informed walking over to Ferno, who was sleeping in the shade.

Sarah turned seriously to Diego, "Diego, I swear to Arceus, if you have some Guardian thing that you're not telling me, I'm going to go on by myself."

"Don't worry I was just joking." Diego said snatching a Pomeg berry off of the ground next to Sarah.

"Your limp is looking better." Sarah said carefully cutting another berry into halves.

"Yeah hopefully I'll be able to go for a run again soon, I got one day of five K run and then you haven't let me run since." Diego moaned falling back onto the grass, wiping his face with the bottom of his tattered t-shirt _I can wait to replace this thing_ he thought looking at his ruined clothes.

"Yeah well would you prefer to wait a couple of days for the healing to finish or rip your leg to shreds and never run again?" she answered cutting another Pomeg into thirds. "You should bring out the Pokémon, its lunch time."

Diego reached into his pocket to retrieve Dea's 'ball then called out to Spera, who was fluttering around the edge of the clearing. "Eat up guys." Diego said releasing Dea and nudging Ferno awake. Sarah handed out the thirds of Pomeg berry to the Pokémon and placed one of the halves on the other side herself, away from Diego. Diego sat there quietly while Sarah passed the other half over to Ferno who began wolfing it down.

"Eh, Sarah aren't you forgetting someone?" Diego said watching the Pokémon eat with growing confusion.

"Ah let's see, Tle, Spera, Dea and Ferno, no nope I didn't forget anyone, why?" she said tilting her head and looking at him innocently.

"What about me?" Diego said a frown growing on his face.

"You already had your berry, you ate it already, remember." She stated simply picking up her own slice and biting into it.

Diego stared at her with astonishment while she let the berry juice dribble down her chin. "Mmm, so good, so refreshing." She mumbled glancing at Diego, whose face had changed from astonishment to plotting.

Diego was just about jump at Sarah when he felt a hand touch his hand. He glanced down and saw that Dea had carried her slice of berry over to Diego and was offering it to him. Diego glanced up at Sarah, who had facepalmed, then back at Dea, who nudged the slightly eaten berry slice towards him again, "no Dea, you need it," Diego nudged the slice back towards Dea, "plus, I already had my piece."

Dea made a protesting mewing noise as Diego stood up to which Ferno answered: "_enough Dea he said for you to have it, so eat it." _

"Thanks Ferno." Diego frowned at the Growlithe who shrugged and moved off to the shade to finish his nap.

"Don't sleep for too long, Ferno, we're heading off soon. Once everyone has finished eating we're outta here." Sarah informed finishing her piece of berry.

"I don't think we'll be off anytime soon. Look at the girls." Diego said turning around, Sarah saw that both Dea and Spera had only eaten a quarter of their berries and hung her head. "I'm going to go exploring. I'll be back in about ten minutes."

"Fine whatever, do as you please Grand Master." Sarah said collapsing back onto the grass behind her.

With that blessing Diego headed over to the 'entrance' of the Dark Cave. He stood in front of the gaping hole inspecting the complete blackness inside the cave. _Well I could light it up with a small flame, _he thought, _but then again someone could see me holding the flame and that could cause some problems. Wow I have never seen a cave this dark before, there's no internal light source at all. There is probably just Zubats in there anyway not worth it._ Diego decided to just walk the perimeter of the caves outside. He had been walking for a short time when he hear his Pokénavs ringtone sound from his back pocket, the one that was still intact. He reached to grab it and saw that it was Red, he answered it: "Hey dude… oh ya know, been walking for so long I've already lost track of what day it is, what about you?... Oh, sounds like someone has a rival, scandalous, what's this guy's name? ... What a stupid name, who names their kid after a colour I mean come on Green, morons…. Where are you, it sounds like you're at a stadium or something…. Isn't that cheating? …. Yes it is, watching a gym leader to see the type they use is definitely cheating….. No I haven't but you haven't either so don't you try that shit on me, boy or you'll find me in Kanto very quickly…. Nah, it has actually been behaving pretty well, besides that I had an encounter with the Absol and I got into a fist fight with a Nidoking but other than that it been fine… oh yeah how many Pokémon do you have now? …. What?! You caught a Pikachu, of course you did. Anyway I could still beat you… what do you mean Ferno could destroy your Bulbasaur and your Pikachu wouldn't stand a chance against my Ralts….. Oh sure that's what Sarah said but I have an ace up my sleeve that could easily dispose of Poli… empty threats brother, empty threats anyway I better go Sarah's calling for me… yeah, see ya." With that Diego shut his Pokénav and began walking back to where the group was.

"Hey let's go, it's almost 4 o'clock and we have to get to Violet city before nightfall." Sarah said when Diego reached the group.

"Alright then, bossy pants." Diego said nudging Ferno back awake. He saw Sarah glare at him in the corner of his eye making him smile. "Alright Dea 'ball or shoulder? Your choice." Diego said crouching in front of her. Dea ran around to his back and climbed up onto his shoulder, "alright shoulder it is." He said slinging his pack over his other shoulder, "Ready?".

"yeah." Sarah nodded turning and picking up Tle and Spera.

They had been walking for an hour when they reached the banks of a lake and they had to make an emergency stop.

"Diego why in Entei's name didn't you go to the toilet before we started walking again?" Sarah growled at Diego.

"Because I didn't feel it then, it's not my fault that the berry shot straight through me. I be done in half a minute anyway." He replied walking away from the track. "Just keep a look out so no one sees me." Diego didn't wait for a reply because he had already been holding it in for ten minutes.

After he had finished he walked back to the track to find Sarah staring out at the lake with a frown. Diego quietly walked up behind her and stood beside her wondering what she was looking at. "Whatcha looking at?"

"I don't quite know. Do you see that grouping of lilies at the side of the lake?"

"Which one?"

"That one," Sarah pointed at a group on the left of the lake, Diego nodded to show he saw them, "is it me or is there a stream of bubbles coming up from them?"

Diego looked closely at the group, which must have been fifty metres away, and wondered how Sarah could see the bubbles. "Well there could have been a buildup of oxygen underneath the lilies and it could be simply seeping out." Diego said giving a logical answer and turning away.

"Yeah I thought that too but that doesn't explain the ripples." Sarah said.

Diego huffed and looked down at the Pokémon who were staring out at the lilies too. Diego realized that Ferno was growling and Dea was whimpering. Diego looked up at the lilies again and looked as closely as his eyes would let him. _There's something under the lilies _the voice in his head said. Diego's eyes widened as he came to the same conclusion. He ripped off his pack and threw it down behind the group catching Sarah's attention.

"Diego what are you doing?" Sarah asked watching him rip off his shoes. She didn't get an answer because Diego had sprinted to the edge of the lake and dove in. "Diego! What the hell?!" she yelled after him when he resurfaced five metres away. Growing up Diego had been one of the best swimmers in Littleroot and now he powered through the water closing the gap between him and the bubbles. Sarah just stood on the bank and watched as Diego reached the lilies and dove under.

No amount of underwater swimming ever prepares you for that feeling when you open your eyes up underwater. Diego took a moment to recollect himself as his world changed from a crystal clear one to one of blurred colours and distorted shapes. He grabbed the stem of a lily and began pulling himself downwards only to find it ripped loose of its anchor and became slack. _Arceus dammit why aren't I a water type, it would make this so much easier _he thought to himself as he began kicking downwards towards to source of the bubbles. Luckily for him the source wasn't that far below the surface so Diego was able to reach it in one breath. When he reached it he 'saw' that it was a the same colour as the surrounding water, he only knew that he had reached the source because the bubbles didn't go any further and because there was a grouping of the stems surrounding the thing. When Diego reached out to touch the thing he felt two things in quick succession; one he felt a scaly hide and two he felt a shot of extreme pain shoot through the hand he had touched it with. This pain caused Diego to shout out in pain, which underwater just resulted in a large burst of bubbles. He ripped his hand free of the mouth, which was obviously loosing energy, and was preparing to kick back to the surface when a thought ripped through his head like the pain had _Don't You Dare Leave! That thing will die if we leave now_. Diego felt himself turn back to the source of decreasing bubbles and grab hold of stems that the thing was tangled in, this time it was too weak to bite him, and gave a strong tug. He had expected the stems to come loose like the one he had grabbed before but instead he felt one of the thickest stems roughly tug back. _It's a vine. Cut it loose now._

_ But I can't_ he thought _I left my hunting knife in my pack._

_ Then Use A Blade_ the voice shouted at him. With that thought Diego clenched his right hand and felt it get slightly heavier. With that he slashed at the stem and felt the tension on the thing considerably lessen. He once again tugged and a wave of nausea ripped through his mind, without thinking he gave another rough tug and felt the tension disappear. _Good now let's grab the thing and get it to the surface _the voice commanded and so Diego grabbed the thing, which gave a slight struggle, _good it's still alive_ Diego kicked savagely towards the surface while black began licking at the edge of his vision. He felt a burst of air as he surfaced and breathed in the most delicious breath of his life. Once he reoriented himself he turned to his left, the side which was holding the thing, and saw a Totodile lying limp in his hand. He placed his right hand on top of its chest and pushed down hard. He repeated this process three times, growing progressingly more worried with each push, until the little Totodile coughed and spat water directly in his face before going limp again. Diego moved his head onto its chest and heard a faint 'thump thump' of its heartbeat and a smile spread across his face. He moved the Totodile to rest against his left shoulder and began gently, and slowly, paddling back towards the shoreline where Sarah stood. He had travelled about ten metres when he heard Sarah shout something from shore. He stopped to listen to what Sarah was shouting, before he heard Sarah he heard the Totodile give a deep throated growl which was unusual for a Pokémon that had just come back from the brink of death.

"Diego behind you, swim fast now!" she shouted from the shore.

Diego slowly turned around to look behind himself and saw what Sarah had seen before him. A sharp-looking fin had broken the surface followed by an even sharper horn. The fin and horn were making its way towards Diego and the Totodile with impressive speed so Diego turned back and began paddling as fast as he could towards the shore. Diego was making very slow progress only paddling with one arm, the other bracing the Totodile against his shoulder. He could hear Sarah and all the Pokémon shouting and yelling from the shoreline. Diego dared to look behind him between strokes and saw a large Seaking bearing down on the pair. _Hurry up and do it, I'm not going to let you let this Totodile die. _The voice shouted at him.

"I can't, they haven't seen me do it yet." Diego shouted back.

_I don't care. Do It Now. _He felt his body began to warm and felt the unusual pain from his chest spread rapidly through his body. _Don't forget the Totodile._ The voice said calmly as Diego felt heat rip through his body as the water around him was quickly replaced with nothing but empty air. He fell hard on the ground landing on his stomach with a thump. Diego always felt disoriented after he teleported and as he rolled over he began gagging, as if he was going to vomit. After he finished gagging he realized there was a hand on his back and that someone was trying to talk to him.

"Diego, Diego are you alright?" the voice said, it sounded like it was a kilometre away.

From where Diego lay he realized that his eyes were shut. "Totodile?" he croaked out.

"Yeah it's here and it's breathing. Diego are you alright can you sit up?" the voice said, he realizing that it was Sarah. Diego nodded and slowly sat up, aided by Sarah, while he opened his eyes. The world spun for a moment while he sat there staring at the grass between his legs.

"_Are you alright?" _a voice said beside him, he realized it was Ferno.

He was just about to answer when he hear a hoarse voice answer instead, "_yes_". Diego turned his head and saw that Ferno was talking to the Totodile, who was sitting in a similar position as Diego, obviously feeling the after effects of teleportation.

"Diego what did you just do?" Sarah asked handing him a towel to dry himself of with.

"I saved the Totodile."

"No not that, the other thing. How were you able to get from being in the middle of the lake to suddenly being behind us?" Sarah asked squatting down next to him, rubbing his back.

"Oh that's called teleportation, I call it jumping, sounds less… lame. I don't do it often because it has undesirable after effects." He said looking back at the ground. _Happy?_ He thought.

_Very _the voice replied smugly.

"Since when could you teleport? And cant psychic types only teleport?" she asked stopping rubbing his back.

"Six months ago was the first time I 'jumped' and why are you asking me. I never understand how I do anything." He replied pulling himself up to a standing position. The Totodile obviously had had the same idea because it stood up too. "How are you feeling?" Diego asked it.

"_I'm fine, enough. Thank you for helping me, Guardian." _It growled at him raising its head to look Diego in the eye.

"How do you know what I am?"

"_He explained" _the Totodile said nodding towards Ferno.

"Alright then, what had you?"

The Totodile shrugged. "I can answer that." Sarah said. "It was a Weepinbell. I saw it pull its vines out of the water from near the lilies."

_That's what I must of cut loose _Diego thought.

"_Well thank you once again for saving me but I must go and you must want to get to the human place." _The Totodile said beginning to move towards the banks of the lake.

_Don't let it go Diego, we need a water type don't we? _The voice said to him but this time it sounded a lot more like his own voice than it had before. "Hey," Diego said walking after the Totodile, "I'm not letting you go back out there. That Seaking is probably just waiting for you to get back in the water and I'm not letting that happen to you. I will take you to the Pokémon centre in Violet city and then you can decide whether or not you want to stay with me or come back here."

The Totodile was staring up at him, "_don't think you can force me to stay with you." _It snapped at him.

"Wouldn't think of it." Diego smiled before turning around and walking towards where he had tossed down his bag.

"Diego your bleeding, again." Sarah said, walking up behind him looking at his hand.

Diego looked down at it and saw that there were small streams of blood flowing out of teeth hole. "When aren't I bleeding nowadays?" He smiled slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Come on we still have another hour until we reach violet city and I could really use a soft bed." Diego and Sarah began walking with the Pokémon walking around them, Ferno chatting with the Totodile.


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or form. Just the plot and OC of this story.**

* * *

Diego walked along one of the main roads of Violet City watching the people that walked past him and listening to his Pokémon chat. It was interesting how people reacted towards a trainer and their Pokémon. He could have understood certain peoples reaction if he would have been walking along with a team of enormous Pokémon instead of three small first evolution Pokémon, the tallest of which was two feet and four inches. So he was very confused when people would cross the road to get away from the group or when some parents would usher their children away from his Pokémon and glare at him like he was carrying around a disease. Diego realized how uncensored he had became growing up in a Pokémon Daycare, Pokémon had never poised a threat to him or had never tried to attack him, without him provoking them, but he realized that not everyone had had the same upbringing as him. It wasn't all bad some adults would stop him and talk to him about his Pokémon and his journey before they began droning own about their own journeys and some children would came up to Diego and ask if they could touch his Pokémon causing them to go into uncontrollable giggling fits when they felt the contrast between Ferno's fur and Ripas' scaly hide.

_"I think that little girl had something sticky on her hand."_ Ripas said leaning against Ferno and rubbing against him.

Diego glanced down at Totodile "yeah I saw her with an ice cream before she came to pat you, so that was probably it." He smiled. Diego looked forward as Ferno snapped at Ripas before he glanced sideways at his shoulder where Dea began talking.

After she finished Diego glanced down at pair who were walking along the ground and waited for a translation. When both stayed quiet Diego loudly cleared his throat, "_no I refuse to translate anymore, and you have another Pokémon which you can understand get him to translate." _Ferno growled swinging his head from side to side.

Diego just shrugged and wondered what was wrong with Ferno before shifting his glance to Ripas who began translating, "_she asked 'where are we heading?'" _

"We're heading to the Pokémart to pick up some supplies before we take up the gym challenge." All the Pokémon seemed to be satisfied with this explanation and when back to talking amongst themselves. It took them another thirty minutes to reach the Pokémart at the slow pace they travelled at, because each one of Diego's steps counted for two or three of the Pokémon's steps. When they did enter the Pokémart Diego told Ferno and Ripas to stay close as the Pokémart was bigger than he had expected.

After gathering up some potions and a few pieces of food Diego paid and was out of there. On their way to the Pokémart he had seen that the gym was a little back towards the way they had come so Diego set out in that direction. It took a few minutes to reach the gym. Diego stood outside of gym in front of a newly painted sign:

'**Violet City Pokémon Gym Leader: Falkner ** The Elegant Master of Flying Pokémon'

"Huh I wonder what type he trains." Diego said sarcastically before walking up to the doors where another sign was stuck to the door:

'**If Pokémon are not battling they must remain inside their pokéballs.**'

Diego looked at the sign as if it was written in gibberish, "Wha..." Diego trailed of before shrugging and turning to his Pokémon "well you heard the sign, everyone back into their 'balls." Dea and Ripas didn't resist being put back in their pokéball but when Diego pulled out Ferno's 'ball the Growlithe began growling and backing away.

"_You know I don't like being in there." _He growled

"Yeah I know and I promise that the moment we get back outside I'll bring you back out, okay." Diego said reassuringly. Ferno growl and barked before Diego put him in his pokéball. He put the pokéballs away in his pockets and pushed the fogged glass door open. He had been inside a Pokémon gym before so he was use to the usual layout of a gym. He walked into the front hall/foyer of the gym and spotted a man sitting behind a desk on a phone. He began heading towards the man who held up his hand when Diego reached him. Diego decided to have a look around while the man finished his phone call. Diego noticed that the foyer was pretty barren save for a couple of chairs and one piece of art that hung next to the door.

After a minute or so Diego heard the man behind him say "what can I help you with?"

"Ahh yeah, I was wonder when the next opportunity to battle the gym leader was?"

"I believe Falkner has left for the day and won't be accepting a challenge until tomorrow." He man said looking down at a schedule book. "I can schedule a time for you to take the gym challenge for tomorrow if you like."

"Ah yeah that would be great. Also there is another person I'm travelling with that will want to take the challenge as well."

"That okay but there will have to be a break between challenges to allow people to heal their Pokémon." Diego nodded to show he understood, "alright the earliest opening is at 10am, is that good for you?"

"Is there any time later?" Diego asked thinking of how Sarah had been sleeping in lately.

"Well 11am is taken but I can get you 12pm and the other person 2pm." The man said studying the book.

"Yeah that will be good." Diego smiled. "Can I borrow a pen to write down the times?" the man produced a pen and a note pad to write on. "Thanks." Diego said after he finished writing and passed the equipment back to the man.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" the man asked.

"Nah I'm good, thanks." Diego said turning around and stuffing the note in his pocket.

When he got out of the gym he brought Ferno back out, who muttered something about breaking his pokéball, Diego decided to keep the others inside their pokéballs. "Come on Ferno let's go check on Sarah." Diego said beginning to walk towards where he and Sarah were staying.

It took Diego and Ferno 45 minutes to reach the Pokémon Centre at the eastern side of Violet. Diego walked through the automatic door at the front and began heading towards the accommodation block situated at the rear of the Centre. The block consisted of thirty rooms that could be rented out by anyone who had nowhere else to stay; meaning it mainly was populated by trainers on their journeys which also meant it was populated by a high number of Pokémon. Diego opened the doors to the block and had to hold his foot up in the air as a Marill and a Poliwag came sprinting out from the door startling both Diego and Ferno. After Diego got into the hall he saw an obstacle that he would have to overcome to get to his room; an Electivire and a Rhydon were having a debate in the middle of the hall effectively blocking off the hallway. When Diego reached them he asked them to let him through.

Both of the giants looked down at him and glared at him before moving aside, obviously irritated to have their debate interrupted. As Diego walked between them with Ferno in tow he heard one of them grunt; "_look at that thing it's so small and pathetic."_

Diego heard Ferno growl and beat him to a rebuttal "he may be small but he could kick you asses any day." Diego smiled and Ferno barked at them. Diego half turned to look at them and saw that both of them had a look of shock on their faces. Diego could help but laugh as he reached his door to the room he shared with Sarah. His laughter stopped when he heard music and singing coming from the other side of the door.

He slowly and quietly opened the door and signaled to Ferno to be quiet. When he opened the door a crack the words of the song came to his ears;

" … And my heavy heart sinks deep down under you and your twisted words,  
Your help just hurts  
You are not what I thought you were  
Hello to high and dry

Convinced me to please you  
Made me think that I need this too  
I'm trying to let you hear me as I am" the word rang out as Diego peeked in to see that it was Sarah who was singing.

"…I'm not gonna write you a love song  
'cause you asked for it  
'cause you need one, you see  
I'm not gonna write you a love song  
'cause you tell me it's make or break in this  
If you're on your way  
I'm not gonna write you to stay  
If all you have is leaving I'ma need a better reason to write you a love song today

Promise me that you'll leave the light on  
To help me see with daylight, my guide, gone  
'cause I believe there's a way you can love me  
Because I say

I won't write you a love song  
'cause you asked for it  
'cause you need one, you see  
I'm not gonna write you a love song  
'cause you tell me it's make or break in this" Diego was taken aback, he hadn't realized how good Sarah was at singing. As she continued to sing Diego quietly walked into the room and stood in front of the door and watched Sarah begin playing an imaginary piano.

"…Is that why you wanted a love song?  
'cause you asked for it  
'cause you need one, you see  
I'm not gonna write you a love song  
'cause you tell me it's make or break in this  
If you're on your way  
I'm not gonna write you to stay  
If your heart is nowhere in it  
I don't want it for a minute  
Babe, I'll walk the seven seas when I believe that there's a reason to write you a love song today, today."

With that the music stopped and Diego began clapping and Ferno howled, "Encore, Encore!" he shouted as Sarah whipped around and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Oh My Arceus Diego, how long have you been standing there?!" she said her face turning red.

"Long enough to see that you're really good at singing." Diego smiled walking over to his bed and laying down on it.

"Diego you can't tell anyone about this, you weren't even supposed to find out about it." She stammered looking at him pleadingly.

"Why what's wrong with singing, its fine for a girl to be able to sing."

"It's just… that between you, Red, the others and my family I've kind of became a bit of a tomboy. I mean come on I have two other sisters and no brothers, remember." Sarah explained.

Diego shifted himself into a sitting position and looked her in the eye, "what do you mean between me and Red?"

"Well you two always treated me like one of the guys when we were little so I guess I kind of became a bit of a manly girl." She said looking at the ground between her feet.

Diego saw how much this meant to Sarah and decided to be a good friend, "alright Sarah, I'll keep your secret. And come on we all have secrets. I have a bunch personally."

"Like what I know basically everything about you?" she frowned.

Diego laughed, "Sarah there are thing that I know that I can never tell anyone, at all."

"Oh but just Guardian stuff." Sarah scoffed.

"No. Not all of it. Granted a major of it is but there are still things that have nothing to do with being a Guardian that I have to keep a secret."

Sarah just shook her head before saying "did you check out the Gym?"

Diego nodded and pulled the note out of his pocket, "I got us scheduled to take on the Gym at those time tomorrow," he pointed at the times on the note, "I presume you'll want the 2 o'clock time?"

Sarah nodded, "we should probably go do some training."

"Yeah but first I need to take care of natures calling." Diego said walking towards the bathroom.

"Make sure you open the window." She called after him as she heard the door lock.

* * *

The rest of that day consisted of training for the upcoming battles; Diego noticed a slight rivalry beginning to develop between Ferno and Ripas. After the day training the group headed out a restaurant for dinner but they were asked to leave because 'they were disturbing the other dinners'. With that they headed back to the Pokècenter to rest up for the next day.

"Come on Diego, we're gonna be late." Sarah said running ahead of Diego.

Diego pulled out his Pokénav and checked the time, "Sarah we're a quarter of an hour early, we'll be fine. Plus I'm the one who is battling first."

"So come on, _you_ don't want to be late." Sarah said turning and motioning to him to hurry up.

"Argh." Diego groaned before breaking into a jog. The pair jogged for about 100 meters before they neared the Pokémon Gym. Diego stopped in front of a reflective window a few meters from the Gym. "You sure I look okay." He asked Sarah who had stopped a meter ahead of him.

Sarah facepalmed, "Diego you're a guy, what do you care about how you look?"

Before going to dinner yesterday Diego had grudgingly gotten his parent to send him some money to buy some new clothes as ever since the group had reached Violet Diego had been wearing Sarah's spare clothes. He had gotten himself a replacement running shirt and some everyday clothes. He now wore a dark gray, almost black, t-shirt and navy blue track pants that he had unzipped into shorts.

"Well I don't want to look retarded." He said turning to Sarah and continuing to walk towards the Gym.

"Diego it's you, you always look retarded." She smiled.

"Says you." He muttered.

"_Will you two stop; we have to get ready for the battle, Diego." _Ferno growled beside him as they reached the door.

"Well that doesn't make any sense." Sarah said eyeing the sign on the door while Diego returned Ferno.

"Yeah well the gym leader makes the rules so take it up with him." he said walking into the Gym. The pair walked up to the main desk where the same man sat. "Hi there I'm here to take the Gym Challenge, I was here yesterday."

"Ah yes, you're a couple of minutes early," this caused Sarah to smile sheepishly, "but I can get you an early start if you like."

"Yeah that sounds good." Diego said.

"Oh I almost forgot you need to fill out this form." The man said producing a form on a clipboard and a pen. "The forms pretty standard, just ask me if you need help with something."

Diego nodded and began filling out the form. It was made up of general identity questions; name, birth place, trainer number that type of stuff. It only took Diego a few moments to fill out the completed form and hand it back to the man, who scanned over it to make sure all the areas were filled in.

"Alright follow me." He man said standing up and walking towards a set of doors. Once they were through them the man turned to Sarah, "you can go watch the match from the grandstand." He gestured towards a grandstand on the left of a battle area that already had a couple of people seated in it.

"Good luck, Diego." Sarah smiled at him before walking towards the 'stand for a seat.

"Follow me." The man instructed.

Diego had a look around the battle area and noticed that the gym had a very high roof. "Well I guess they need room." Diego mumbled. He looked back at the grandstand and spotted Sarah, "does that grandstand ever fill?" he asked the man.

"Yes, when ever Falkner comes out to battle someone there tends to be large crowd to watch, if someone makes it up to Falkner that is."

_He's trying to undermine your confidence, Diego, ignore him _the voice said.

_I know _Diego thought.

The man led him to a sort of waiting room. "Wait here, I will come and get you when it is time to begin." With that he left.

Diego sat down on one of the plastic chairs and pulled out his pokéballs containing his Pokémon. He looked through transparent tops and his Pokémon looked back at him, "alright guys this is it, this is where it begins. The first one is always the hardest after all but this is what all the training is for. Let's do this." he said as much to himself as them, all of his Pokémon nodded and snarled, even Dea bared her teeth to look aggressive causing Diego to chuckle lightly but inside he felt like he was about to puke.

"It's time." A voice said beside him. Diego stood and put his Pokémon back in his pockets before turning and following the man out of the waiting room. The man led Diego along a short hallway before stopping at the end of it. "This is where I stop, just follow the path and go up the stairs to enter the arena." He paused and looked down at the boy, "good luck." He said before turning and walking back down the hallway.

Diego watched him walk away. After the man turned a corner and vanished from Diego's field of vision Diego turned back to the arena, "well better now than never." He muttered and started walking towards the arena. It was only fifteen meters from the mouth of the hallway to the steps of the arena, which were just three steps to the raised arena. Diego walked up the steps and stepped into the arena. He noticed that there was an official on the side of the arena. He looked to his left and saw Sarah sitting on the grandstand; she gave him two thumbs up making him smile. That smile faded when he turned back to face his opponent who had walked into the arena.

Diego's opponent was a kid probably the same age as him. He was shorter than Diego with reddish brown hair. He wore what looked to be a blue flight suit with some weird wrapping around one of his forearms.

Diego would have like a bit more time to size up his opponent but the official decided not to waste any time on starting the match. "Alright this is the first match in the preliminary rounds to determine whether or not the challenger will face Gym Leader Falkner. This match will be an all on all team battle. Both of the trainers may switch out their Pokémon at any point. Do both trainers accept these conditions?" both boys nodded, neither were talking in an attempt to psyche out their opponent. "Alright then," the official began raising his arm, "when I drop my arm both of you must release your Pokémon so grab them out now." Diego began searching around his pockets for the pokéball he wanted while his opponent pulled a pokéball out from a bag behind him. "Ready…" the official called, Diego's grip on the pokéball tightened, "Begin!"

"Go Spearow!" the boy shouted tossing his pokéball up in the air. There was a small cloud as the pokéball released the Spearow into the air.

"Go Ripas!" Diego said quieter than the boys shout holding Ripas' pokéball in front of him to release him.

Both Pokémon were out on the battling arena and were staring at each other. Diego wasn't quite sure whether or not he should attack first or let his opponent do it. _Oh hurry up Diego and use Rage _he thought. "Ripas, Rage!" he called giving the Totodile the opportunity to charge at the Spearow.

"Spearow use Fury Attack!" the boy shouted as his Spearow began flying at Ripas with an impressive speed.

_Good _Diego thought as Ripas was closing down the gap between the two Pokémon, when Diego had been training Ripas while in Violet he had honed the Totodile's attack strength. _All it needs to do is get close enough for Ripas to hit it_. The distance between the two Pokémon was shrinking quickly, with only about ten meters left Diego changed tactics, "Ripas use Water Gun!"

The trainer was so confused by Diego's switch of attacks that he didn't react to the command. Ripas skidded to stop, straightened himself up and shot a pressurized jet of water at the Spearow. The jet missed its target of the Spearow's body but as the Spearow tried to dodge it the jet hit one of its wings causing it to fall to the ground a couple of meters in front of Ripas, who had resumed charging at it with his rage attack ready.

"Spearow get up and use Peck!" the boy shouted. His Spearow began moving but only very slowly, the actual Water Gun that had hit it wasn't very strong but the speed at which the Spearow had been travelling when it hit the ground had been quite fast meaning it had taken more damage from the impact with the ground.

Ripas continued to bare down on the Spearow who had now propped itself up on the wing that hadn't been hit. The boy stood there speechless until Ripas was just about to launch his attack before yelling "Now!" the Spearow launched itself at Ripas with its last ounce of strength. Both the Pokémon collided but the result was obvious as when Ripas hit the Spearow it was thrown backwards while Ripas simply skidded backwards a small distance.

The official looked at the result of the collision; the Totodile stood upright breathing deeply and the Spearow lay on the ground unmoving, knocked out. Both the official and Diego watched the Spearow's trainer return it to its pokéball and raise his hands before announcing "I'm done."

The official nodded at this, "the Spearow is unable to continue battling and the defense trainer has no more Pokémon to continue battling with so the defense trainer has lost and victory is awarded to the challenger who will be moving onto the next preliminary match."

Diego stood there shocked that he had beaten the first trainer. It wasn't until the official spoke to him that he snapped back to reality, "challenger, return your Pokémon and return to the holding room." Diego looked down and noticed Ripas standing beside him, smiling, waiting to be returned. Diego returned the Totodile and walked back to the waiting room.

The moment he got there he brought out Ripas' pokéball and smiled at him. "You did absolutely amazing, Ripas. The way you dealt with that Spearow was amazing." Inside his pokéball Ripas was snapping happily. "But I reckon that you did enough battling so I'll save you until we have to face Falkner, sound good?" Ripas nodded and curled up to go to sleep. Diego sat there watching Ripas sleep until the man from the reception came in.

"It's time to take on the next trainer." He motioned for Diego to follow him.

"Don't I get to heal my Pokémon?" Diego asked following the man out of the room and into the hallway.

"No. If you beat this trainer then you will be facing Falkner and that's when you get to heal your Pokémon." They reached the mouth of the hall again, "good luck, although after last match I don't think you need it."

Diego turned and walked towards the arena without waiting for the man to leave. He walked up the steps and stood in the same stop as last battle before glancing at the grandstand and noticing that there were about ten more people sitting on it than before. It took Diego a moment to locate Sarah but he found her giving him another thumbs up. He smiled and turned to face his new opponent, his smile only slightly fading. His new opponent was wearing the same clothes as the previous trainer. This trainer was older than the other one, probably older than Diego, and he had jet black hair that was cut to shoulder length. The official repeated the information that he had stated the previous match. Diego was beginning to get slightly unnerved as his opponent hadn't stopped staring at him he whole time, Diego wasn't even sure if he had blinked yet. The official raised his hand again and Diego grabbed out the pokéball he was planning to use. His opponent already had a pokéball in his hand. The official dropped his hand "Go!"

"Go Pidgey!" the trainer shouted.

"Go Dea!" Diego shouted. Both Pokémon stood, staring at each other.

"I'm not going to wait for you to attack first." He shouted at Diego. "Pidgey use Tackle!"

The Pidgey began flying at Dea; Diego noticed that it wasn't moving anywhere as fast as the Spearow had been. The Pidgey was about seven meters away from Dea when Diego made his move. "Double Team!" he commanded, Dea replicated herself into seven copies. "Now use Teleport!" Dea and all of her copies began glowing before they vanished in a burst of white light. But the Pidgey had hit one of the Dea's before it had the chance to teleport completely, luckily for Diego it hadn't been Dea so the copy simply disappeared in a wave of light. Diego had to bring his arms up to cover his face as the Pidgey pulled up to avoid hitting Diego but flew inches past him. The Ralts' reappeared in six different positions around the arena; even Diego didn't know which one was the real Dea. The Pidgey flew up high and landed on one of the rafters attached to the roof, looking down at all the Ralts' with all the Ralts' looking back.

Diego decided to end the stalemate, "Dea use Confusion and bring it down to the ground." All the Ralts' eyes began to glow red and the Pidgey became outlined by red, Diego had to admit that six Ralts with complete glowing red eyes was slightly creeping him out. The Pidgey shrieked as it was lifted from the rafter and pulled directly downwards towards the floor at speed.

"No!" the trainer shouted as his Pidgey hit the ground and was knocked unconscious.

"The Pidgey is unable to continue battling, it must be returned." The official stated while the defense trainer returned the Pidgey before pulling out another pokéball. "You must return your Ralts back to its original form before we can continue." The official said to Diego. Before Diego could instruct Dea to return all the copies vanished leaving the Ralts closest to Diego behind.

The trainer released his other pokéball only to reveal another Pidgey. _Original _Diego thought.

"Go!" the official dropped his arm again.

"Pidgey use Sand Attack!" the trainer shouted. His Pidgey began flapping its wings causing the loose material on the floor of the arena to be lifted into the air and pushed towards Dea. After a couple of moments of extensive flapping the Pidgey had managed to create a wall of dust between the two teams. "Now Pidgey use Tackle." Diego heard his opponent shout.

"Dea be ready for it." Diego said watching the wall, waiting for the Pidgey to burst from. Diego had been watching the wall so intently that he hadn't realized that the Pidgey had taken an alternate path. Diego heard a cry and looked up to see the Pidgey plummeting towards Dea. There wasn't enough time for Diego to react but Dea did. Just before the Pidgey hit her she attempted to jump out of the Pidgey's path but she didn't get enough time clear the attack. The Pidgey didn't hit its mark of Dea's head but did hit her in the shoulder. After Dea was hit the Pidgey pulled up and flew back behind the now-thinning wall of dust. Dea was lying on the ground and wasn't moving.

"Dea?" Diego said worry dripping from his voice.

"Ah, the Ralts…" the official began but stopped when he saw Dea pull herself off the ground.

"Dea are you okay? Do you need a rest?" Diego asked worried for his Ralts, Ralts didn't have the greatest defense stats and that Tackle had been a strong one. Dea nodded and stared straight at the dust cloud.

"I guess that Ralts is still up, oh well." The trainer laughed, the wall had faded to the point that Diego could see the outline of the trainer and his Pidgey. "I'll finish this then, Pidgey use Tackle."

This time Diego was prepared and when he saw the Pidgey fly towards the dust cloud he made his move. "Dea use Confusion!" Diego instructed pointing towards the Pidgey. He had expected Dea to use Confusion on the actual Pidgey but instead of seeing a red Pidgey outline Diego saw the dust cloud turn reddish. The Pidgey's head had just escaped the cloud when it happened. Dea used her Confusion to force all the particles of the cloud to compress down onto the Pidgey's body incasing it in the cloud, which now resembled more of block. The Pidgey cried out in pain while the whole arena fell silent. The two trainers and the official stared at the block and at the Pidgey who was losing strength rapidly. After a few moments the Pidgey stopped making any noises and when limp but when Dea didn't release it from its prison Diego stepped in, "Dea that's enough." Dea continued to hold the block in place, "Dea! Enough!" Diego shouted and Dea jerked her head around to look at him. Diego looked at her with worry and she looked at him with full red eyes, she turned back to the block which stopped glowing red, returning back to a cloud, and the Pidgey fell out onto the ground. Dea stood there staring at the unconscious Pidgey before she shook her head and began backing away until she bumped into Diego's leg, when she hit it she looked up at Diego with fear in her eyes and Diego looked at her with worry in his.

"Ah, the Pidgey is unable to continue battling and the defense trainer has no more Pokémon to continue battling with so the defense trainer has lost and victory is awarded to the challenger who will be moving onto the gym leader battle against Falkner." The official said shakily not sure where to look. The trainer returned his Pidgey and left the arena without saying a word. Diego returned Dea before turning and walking down the stairs back to holding room without saying a word either.

_Well that was… interesting, to say the least _the voice said.

The man was waiting for Diego when he got back to the holding room. "Come with me to heal your Pokémon." He said not giving Diego time to sit down or recover from the battle. Diego followed him back into the hallway and away from the arena. He led Diego through a door with the hospital cross. Inside the door was a simple, small, white room with a couple of plastic chairs in the corner and a Pokémon healing machine against the back wall. The pair walked to the machine and the man healed Diego's Pokémon. After the healing was done the man led Diego back out to the hallway. The man told Diego to wait outside the waiting room until he returned, "I'll check if the gym leader is ready." The man returned a few minutes later and led Diego back along the hallway towards the arena. He stopped just before the mouth of the hallway and turned to Diego, "look kid, I don't know how much training you've done but I wouldn't underestimate Falkner. He may be young but he's tough as nails. You've managed to get through the preliminary rounds but Falkner is another couple of steps up from those trainers. Just don't get too cocky, kid." With that he turned and walked back down hallway leaving Diego alone once again.

Diego stood in the mouth of the hallway listening to the murmuring of the people outside in the stands, it sounded considerably louder than before. _Well it's now or never._ he thought to himself taking a step towards the arena, _first one's always the hardest._ Diego walked out to the steps of the arena and stopped. He looked over to the grandstand and was shocked to not only see it full but to also see people standing around it, waiting for the battle. Diego took a deep breath and walked up the steps and entered the arena. There was no opponent on the opposite side of the arena so Diego glanced at the stands again this time looking for Sarah. He couldn't see her in the spot he thought was her usual spot, _she probably just at the toilet _he tried to reassure himself.

"Challenger!" someone shouted at him. Diego turned back to the arena and noticed a boy standing opposite him. The boy was probably about fifteen and stood taller than Diego. He was dressed in a blue something, _what is he wearing?_ He had dark blue hair that fell over one of his eyes, _how did he need get blue hair?_ Just looking at this guy was confusing Diego.

"This is the final battle for the challenger, Diego Grove, in his attempt to gain the Zephyr badge. He will be battling against the current Gym Leader of the Violet City Gym, Falkner." With the mention of their gym leader the crowd started cheering. Once the crowd had died down the official continued, "This will be a three on three battle, both the challenger and the Gym Leader can switch out their Pokémon at any point but can only use a maximum of three Pokémon. Does the challenger accept these terms?" Diego nodded, not wanting to break eye contact with Falkner, "does the Gym Leader accept the conditions?" Falkner nodded. "Alright then, take out our first pokéball and be ready to begin on my mark." Diego reached into his pocket and pulled out the pokéball he wanted while Falkner produced his own 'ball. "Alright. Ready," the official raised his arm, "Go!" he shouted.

Both boys released their Pokémon into the arena. A Totodile and a Pidgey glared at each other once the smoke cleared. Both boys and Pokémon refused to make the first move; it wasn't until a grinding sound was heard that Diego looked away. He looked up and saw that the roof was slowly pulling apart to reveal a cloudless, blue sky. _As if this place wasn't tall enough._ he thought to himself but his thoughts were ripped away when he heard Falkner say a command.

"Pidgey use Sand Attack." The Pidgey began to push material and debris into the air creating a larger wall than the previous Pidgey had created. Once the wall was fully assembled Falkner continued his commands, "Now use Gust." the Pidgey began flapping its wings causing a wind to push the wall towards Ripas and Diego. Soon a cloud of dust had settled over Ripas rendering him practically blind. Diego realized what Falkner was doing before he gave the command; "Pidgey use Tackle." the Pidgey flew straight at the cloud of dust.

"Ripas get ready…" Diego trailed off as the Pidgey dived into the cloud and Ripas cried out when the Pidgey hit him. The Pidgey flew out of the cloud.

"Hit it again." Falkner smiled. The Pidgey turned and dived towards the cloud again.

"Ripas be ready for it." Diego said before the Pidgey flew into the cloud again but this time there wasn't a cry of pain from Ripas instead it was the Pidgey who shrieked in pain. Following the shriek there was a 'thump' of something hitting the ground with force.

"_I pinned it to the ground!"_ Diego heard Ripas growl from inside the cloud.

"Alright use Rage." Diego commanded. Ripas grunted and a series of shrieks follow. There are about five shrieks before they stop. Diego glanced up at Falkner who was wildly searching the cloud for any trace of his Pidgey. The gym when silent for a moment before the unconscious Pidgey was thrown out of the cloud and landed close to Falkner, who looked at the unconscious body in shock and horror. He looked up at Diego, with wide eyes, who stood staring back at him.

"The Pidgey is unable to battle it must be returned." The official said. After Falkner returned his Pidgey he pulled out another pokéball and looked at Diego in the eye. Diego saw that his eyes were no longer filled shock but that they were full of anger.

Falkner released his next Pokémon, which once the cloud vaporized revealed a Spearow. He didn't make a noise, he just stared at Diego. "Go!" the official shouted.

Diego decided to make the first move; "Ripas use Water Gun." Ripas shot a pressurized out of the significantly thinned cloud.

"Dodge it!" Falkner commanded. The Spearow lifted off into the air meaning that the Water Gun missed by a significant distance but that didn't worry Diego. "Use Peck!" Falkner shouted, the Spearow flew straight at Ripas' shadow through the cloud.

"Ripas Rage." Diego commanded. The cloud had thinned to the point that both Pokémon could see shadowy shapes of each other. The Spearow was just outside of the cloud when Ripas jumped out at it. The plan had been for the two Pokémon to collide and be forced onto the ground before Ripas would use Rage on the Spearow. But Diego had miscalculated the speed at which the Spearow had been travelling so when Ripas jumped at he ended up jumping straight over it. The Spearow pulled up, turned and began heading towards Ripas before he had landed. The Spearow hit Ripas in the left shoulder causing him to fall to the ground from the power of the hit. The Spearow flew back into the sky, turned and flew at Ripas again but this time Diego was prepared. When the Spearow was about ten metres away he told Ripas to use Rage so when the Spearow was just about to hit the Totodile Ripas pushed himself of the ground and punched the Spearow with an increased powered Rage. The Spearow was about to hit the ground when it opened its wings and flew back into the air before it hit the ground.

_Damn that thing is really good at maneuvering _Diego thought as he watched the Spearow fly back at Ripas.

Diego had thought the next attack was going to be another Peck but Falkner changed that; "use Fury Attack!" he shouted. Ripas had been momentarily confused at the change of attacks and the Spearow exploited to the full affect. It flew close to the ground and hit Ripas before quickly turning back and hitting him again. The Spearow hit him a total of four times before flying away to the rafters, the evidence of the attacks on Ripas was visual on Ripas as he was breathing very deeply and was swaying. Diego knew that if another attack hit the Totodile that it would be the end for him.

"Let's finish this, Spearow use Peck!" the Spearow began diving at Ripas from above.

The Spearow was falling fast so it didn't take long for the Spearow to reach the level above Ripas. Before the Spearow hit Diego shouted "dodge it and use Rage!" Ripas stepped to the side, making the Spearow miss, and punched it with a very powerful Rage. While the Spearow had been hitting Ripas with the Fury Attack it had been building up the strength of Rage. The Spearow was launched sideways from the strength of the Rage, it bounced off ground adding to the damage before coming to a stop near the official. It was obviously not going to get up after the damage it had just sustained. Diego had been watching the Spearow, making sure it wasn't getting back up, when he turned back to Ripas he saw the Totodile sway and fall forward, unconscious. The damage he had taken had obviously done more to him that Diego had originally thought.

"Both Pokémon are unable to continue battling and must be returned." The official said as both boys returned their Pokémon.

"Good work Ripas." Diego whispered to Ripas' unconscious form before putting him back in his pocket.

"Will both trainers ready their next Pokémon. And allow me to remind everyone that the Gym Leader only has one Pokémon left to battle with." The official stated. Diego pulled out the pokéball he was going to use. The official raised his hand, "Go!"

Falkner released a Pidgeotto and Diego released a Growlithe. Both Pokémon stared at each other. The Pidgeotto stood taller than the Growlithe but the Growlithe Intimidate ability had lessened the Pidgeotto's offense.

Falkner beat Diego to draw; "Pidgeotto use Tackle!" The Pidgeotto lifted off the ground and began flying at Ferno.

"Ferno use Ember!" Diego commanded. Ferno released a jet of fire at the Pidgeotto.

The jet was getting closer to the Pidgeotto when Falkner countered; "use Gust!" with that the jet of fire was pushed onto itself before dispersing in the wind. The wind continued down the arena until it hit Ferno and Diego, Ferno flattened himself to the ground and Diego threw up his arms to cover his face. That could have been the battle, if the Pidgeotto would have continued using Gust slowly leeching away at Ferno's health until he gave up but that would have taken days to do, so Falkner changed tactics, "now use Quick Attack!" the Pidgeotto stopped flapping it's wings and began speeding towards Ferno, who was still pinned to the ground. As it closed down the gap between the two Pokémon the wind stopped buffering Ferno and allowed him to stand up and see the Pidgeotto coming towards him.

The Pidgeotto had about five metres left on its attack, "Ferno dodge it and use Bite!" Diego said. Ferno jumped to the left of the Pidgeotto's path and snapped at its wing. The Pidgeotto shrieked in pain as it flew back to Falkner having missed its attack. Diego realized why the Pidgeotto had shrieked when he looked at Ferno; there were a couple of feathers in the Growlithe's mouth which stuck out. Ferno burnt them to ash and let the remains fall the floor. _Huh well that was intimidating _Diego thought. The standoff between Ferno and the Pidgeotto began again, each glaring at each other from opposite sides of the arena, their trainers also glared at each other. This time Diego wasn't going to let Falkner to get the hand up on him so he attacked first; "Ferno close down the gap!" Ferno began charging down the arena at the Pidgeotto.

"Fly up!" Falkner commanded, his Pidgeotto flew straight up. Diego watched it expecting it to stop at the roof of the gym but it simply flew through the hole in the roof, it continued out of Diego's field of sight. Ferno stopped in the middle of the arena and looked up trying to find the Pidgeotto.

"_I can't see it." _Ferno growled scanning the sky through the hole.

"Pidgeotto use Gust!" Falkner shouted pointing at Ferno. The arena was quiet for a moment before the sound of rushing wind filled the arena. Ferno was suddenly pinned down by wind coming down through the opening in the roof.

"Pidgeotto use Quick Attack!" there was a cry from above and the wind stopped pinning Ferno. There was another cry and the Pidgeotto fell back into the arena, but it wasn't falling it had narrowed itself into a steam line shape and was flying down at Ferno.

Ferno straightened himself up off the ground and looked up to see the Pidgeotto speeding towards him. "Ferno dodge it and use Ember!" Ferno jumped out of the way of the feathered bullet, pivoted around on one paw to face the Pidgeotto and shot a jet of fire at the Pidgeotto, who was still falling along the same path because it had been travelling too fast to change its path of trajectory. The jet made a direct hit, hitting the Pidgeotto square in the middle of the back. The Pidgeotto shrieked and pulled up before it hit the ground, flying towards Falkner. It landed on the ground in front of its trainer and Diego saw the damage that had been done by the Ember, smoke was rising off its back from feathers that had been set on fire. Diego was quite impressed by had well the Pidgeotto was taking the damage, most Pokémon would have been struggling with the effects of being burned to that degree. It wasn't that bad as the feathers would grow back to their original size but at the moment it looked pretty bad.

Falkner was obviously getting stressed out by the battle and Diego could tell he wanted to end it but neither Ferno nor Diego was going to give up easily. "Pidgeotto use Tackle!" Falkner shouted pointing at Ferno. The Pidgeotto lifted off the ground and began flying at Ferno but it was obviously having problems with the change in its feathers as it was swaying and weaving from side to side as it approached Ferno.

"Ferno be ready with an Ember." Ferno began charging an Ember while watching the Pidgeotto approach. It was about ten metres from Ferno when it made a decision, the Pidgeotto must have realized that it was never going to hit Ferno hard enough to deal any real damage just flying at Ferno so it began lifting itself higher into the air. It was about at a seventy degree angle from Ferno when it tucked its wings in and began falling straight towards Ferno, gaining speed as it fell. "Now!" Diego commanded Ferno who shot a fireball at the Pidgeotto. The Pidgeotto flew straight through the fireball and continued to descend towards Ferno. Diego wasn't worried by the fact that Ember hadn't done that much damage because it had accomplished its goal of disorientating the Pidgeotto. When the Pidgeotto had gone through the fireball it had had to close its eyes and Diego took advantage of this, "Ferno use Bite." Ferno ducked under the blinded Pidgeotto's Tackle and while the Pidgeotto was falling he clamped his jaws around one of its legs. Before the Pidgeotto hit the ground Ferno dug his claws into the floor of the arena, holding him in place, and the Pidgeotto, suddenly having something stop its forward motion, slammed into the ground causing a small dust cloud to be thrown up.

"_It's out."_ Diego heard Ferno growl as he released the Pidgeotto's leg and began walking over to Diego.

Diego looked at the official who looked stunned by the intensity of the attack. He soon snapped out of it "The Pidgeotto is unable to continue battling and the Gym Leader has no more Pokémon to continue battling with so the Gym Leader has lost and victory is awarded to the challenger." With that a cheer ripped through crowd and Diego began smiling, letting the noise rush over him. He smiled until he looked at Falkner, who had returned his Pidgeotto and was walking towards Diego. When he reached Diego he held out his hand "been a while since I had such a great fight." He smiled.

Diego took his hand "first time I've had a fight like that."

"Well congratulations you've earned this." Falkner said releasing Diego's hand and holding out a Gym badge in the other.

Diego took it and smiled "thanks." He looked at the Zephyr Badge in his hand. _First one _he thought.

"I want a rematch by the way." Falkner said making Diego frown, "of course not until you're stronger. That's when I can use my stronger Pokémon." He smiled.

"I can't wait for it. I had better go heal my Pokémon. Thanks again." Diego turned and began walking back down the stairs and towards the entrance of the Gym. Diego nudged Ferno with his foot, "You did great mate." Ferno just held his head high and growled happily.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and please review I could really do with some feedback.**

**and the song is Sara Bareilles 'love song'.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or form. Just the plot and OC of this story.**

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He ran along the rooftop of an apartment block dodging between air con units and antennas. He was running towards the edge of the rooftop at close to full speed, a pair of Pidgey lifted into the air after being startled by him running past. He felt the lip of building underneath his bare foot as he launched himself into the empty air beyond the lip. He back flipped off the lip without stopping and began falling downwards. After a full rotation he stopped for long enough to see another rooftop rushing up to meet him and he braced for impact. When he hit the rooftop he launched forward into a roll, displacing the energy from the impact throughout his body. After the finished the roll he tried to pop himself back into a standing position to continue running but when he placed his foot down to right himself he put it in a puddle of liquid causing him to slip and fall shoulder first into one of the air conditioning units on the new roof. He shook off the pain that was coursing through his shoulder and shifted his current position of lying on the roof to having his back leaning against the air con unit. He looked up at the building he had just jumped from and counted out the number of floors between the two buildings, the building he had just jumped from was three floors taller than the building he was currently on. He pulled himself up into standing position and rubbed his shoulder.

"Well that was definitely not worth it." He said looking up at the star filled sky and locating a constellation of stars that indicated the direction of south. Using the constellation he turned to the east and located the Pokémon Center. Once he had plotted a path to get there he decided to jump off the building, which turned out to be single stored, and walk along the footpath to the Pokècenter.

He didn't know how long it took him to reach the Pokècenter, as he didn't have a watch and had left his Pokénav in his room in the Pokècenter, but it still being dark was a good sign, especially being the beginning of spring. He moved towards the entrance of the Center but stopped when he saw the night staff mulling around inside, none of them had seen him leave so it would be hard to explain how he had entered without leaving in the first place, so he decided to get back inside via the window that lead to his room. He walked around the side of the 'center and after his second look he found his room, he squeezed his fingers under the window, which he had kept slightly open, and slid the window up. He dropped quietly into the room making sure not to wake Sarah; he tiptoed around her bed and into the bathroom. Once he had closed the door he switched on the light and walked to the toilet. After he finished he caught himself in the mirror while washing his hands, he inspected the shoulder that had hit the air con unit, and he concluded that it was fine and switched out the light. He tiptoed over to his bed to see his Pokémon all sleeping in a pile, that was how they slept when Diego wasn't there, he smiled at the scene and thought about sleeping around them or on the ground but decided against it. He gently nudged each of them awake and picked them up. After lying down on the bed and allowing his Pokémon to rearrange themselves into their usual sleeping positions; Dea curling up on Diego's chest, Ferno lying in-between this left side and his left arm and Ripas had the most awkward position, he had positioned himself underneath Diego's neck acting like an extension of the pillow, the only good part was that Ripas had his spikes pointing into the pillow preventing Diego from stabbing himself. In a few moments of everyone stopping moving the Pokémon were out and a minute later Diego fell into unconsciousness.

Diego woke up with a dull throbbing in this shoulder, _dammit. _he thought as he opened his eyes and the roof of the room focused into recognition. He raised his head slightly and took in that Dea and Ferno were still sleeping and that there was a soft growl-snoring coming from beside his ear. He slowly rotated his head right to look out the window and noticed that the sun was already up. _7 o'clock? _he predicted before reaching out and picking up his Pokénav from the bedside table and checking the time, the display flashed 7:36am. _So close_ he placed the Pokénav back on the table and lowered his head back onto Ripas/his pillow, _do I need to go for a run? Nah I did training last night I should be fine._ He glanced to his left when he heard Sarah mummer in her sleep, she was facing him and she clutched Tle in a death grip under her chin, she was twitching and mumbling in her sleep. Diego shifted his eyes to focus on the bird that perched on the headboard attached to Sarah's bed; Spera obviously had just woken up because she was pruning her feathers back into an orderly fashion.

"Morning Spera." Diego whispered to which the Spearow turned and looked at him, that Spearow barely ever talked to him she just stared, it really creeped Diego out.

Suddenly Diego's focus was torn from the staring Spearow to Sarah who had just shot up into a sitting position, clutching Tle to her chest. Sarah was breathing heavily and was whipping her head around as if trying to find something. Diego quickly slid Dea off him and shot to Sarah's side. He crouched down and began rubbing her back, "Sarah. Sarah it's alright, you're fine. It was just a nightmare." Diego said reassuringly while Sarah looked around bewilderment thick in her eyes. After a few moments she looked at Diego, still breathing heavy, and her eyes grew large. "Sarah i…" Diego started but was cut off mid sentence when Sarah dropped Tle and threw her arms around his neck, crushing him in a hug.

"Thank Arceus, you're alright." She mumbled.

Diego scoffed and patted her back, "Of course I'm alright. It was just a dream."

"I thought you had…" she trailed off before pulling away and looking down.

"I had what?" Diego asked trying to make eye contact.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." She blushed. She swung around to the other side of the bed and stood up. "It's nearly 8 o'clock why were you still in bed?" she said checking the time, keeping her back to Diego.

"I decided not to go for a run. Sarah…" He said confused.

"Aren't we leaving today," she interrupted him, "we should probably start packing up."

* * *

It took the group half an hour to pack away and check out of the Pokémon Center, after three and a half weeks staying it Violet City Diego was more than glad to moving on with their journey again. They had already decided that they were heading south from Violet to Azalea Town, Sarah had been over ruled. They walked along the main street of Violet City towards the main southern exit of the city. Diego was grinning and it was starting to annoy Sarah.

"What are you so happy about?"

"I'm happy that we're back on the road." He answered.

"You know you're probably the only person that I know who actually enjoys being away from civilization."

"I guess you're either a wild child or not. Speaking of wild children have you spoken to Sapphire lately?" Diego asked adjusting the bag strap on his injured shoulder.

"Yeah I spoke to her a couple of nights ago, when you were checking out the Sprout Tower, I called everyone then."

"Oh I see you talked to our friends while I wasn't there eh, what were you complaining about me or something." Diego raised an eyebrow.

"No I don't need to tell them about how annoying you are they already know, plus I was complaining to my parents about you." Sarah smiled.

"Pff what do you have to complain about I have been amazing. You couldn't of made it this far without me." Diego laughed.

"I so could."

"Nah you couldn't."

"Could!" Sarah said loudly.

"Couldn't." Diego said calmly.

Sarah was about to reply when Ferno interrupted, "_enough you two. It's like listening to a couple of new borns.", _Tle nudging Ferno with his tail before they both laughed.

"What did they say?" Sarah asked glancing from the pair of Pokémon to Diego.

Diego gently chuckled, "Don't worry."

Sarah looked back at Tle who had ran ahead with Ferno and Ripas to investigate a sign. She leaned close to Diego and whispered to him "Do you think those scars will ever heal fully?"

"I don't know," Diego whispered back, "though scars do last a lifetime." He said thoughtfully running his thumb along the scar on his jawbone. The scars that had been left on Tle's shell from Ferno's Dragon Claw had begun healing but before they could heal completely the tissue had harden into the same tissue that covered the rest of Tle's shell leaving three groves in his shell. Diego had to admit that it made Tle look pretty badass. "Pokémon are different though, when he evolves tissue might reconstruct itself. It isn't entirely unheard of." Diego said as they arrived at the sign the Pokémon had been investigating.

"_What does it say?"_ Ferno growled looking up at Diego because the sign was too tall for any of the Pokémon to read.

Diego looked at the sign: it was a medium sized sign with a white arrow pointing to the left,

**SOUTH: ROUTE 32**

**ACCESS TO: RUINS OF ALPH 5KM**

** UNION CAVE 120KM**

**NEXT TOWN: AZALEA TOWN**

"It says that we're heading in that direction." Diego pointed down a soil pathway paced hard by previous travelers. When all the Pokémon knew where they heading Diego nodded to the sign, "We're stopping there."

"Where? Azalea town. Course we are stopping there that's the next gym battle, remember." Sarah said shaking her head.

"No I know we are stopping at Azalea but that wasn't what I was talking about. The Ruins of Alph. We're stopping there." Diego said.

"Fine if you want to go and check out a bunch of eroded rocks we can do that but you're cooking 'til we get to Azalea." Sarah shrugged.

"I was going to have to cook anyway, wasn't I?" Diego smiled walking onto the path.

* * *

After a little over an hour of walking the group was within a kilometre of the Ruins of Alph. The Pokémon were happily talking amongst themselves, they were having an argument about who had fought the best during the battle against Falkner. Dea was sitting on Diego's uninjured shoulder while Diego and Sarah walked silently listening to the Pokémon talk.

Dea had kept looking at Diego at random intervals which was beginning to confuse him, "Dea, is something wrong?"

Before Dea could answer Ferno interrupted; "_why do you ask her questions? No offense Dea, but it's not like you can understand her._"

"Because she is my Pokémon and if she looks at me with a question I'm gonna ask her what it is. So?" Diego raised one of his eyebrows.

Dea began talking and Diego listened intently, even though he couldn't understand her. Once she finished he looked down at the Pokémon walking along the ground.

Ripas looked up at Dea, "_what type of question is that?"_

"Just translate it, alright." Diego said rolling his eyes, in the corner of his eye he saw Sarah smile at Diego arguing with his Pokémon.

"_It's a retarded question though." _Diego nodded, "_she asked what colour your eyes are?"_

Diego stopped walking and looked at Dea. Sarah took a few steps before she turned and asked Diego why he had stopped walking. "Dea just asked me what colour my eyes are."

"Well it is a legitimate question, they are pretty weird." Sarah shrugged.

"Okay then." Diego started walking again while he ran his hand through his hair. "Well they are red and black."

"Diego you're going to have to give her a bit more than that." Sarah said rolling her eyes.

"Okay then, you see the eyes are one of the easiest ways to identify a Guardian, they show what their typings are. The outer rings of my irises are black along with the inner ring, that represents my Dark typing, and in between the two rings there is red, Fire. It actually looks pretty cool when the two colours meet, like two differently coloured liquids merging." Diego explained.

"Before I absorbed the Charmeleon, which gave me my fire, I had pure black irises. Just like a solid pupil." Diego looked at Sarah "Do you remember that?"

"I think I do, it was a while ago though." She replied looking thoughtful.

"Yeah well does that answer your question Dea?" Dea nodded. "If you want to know why Sarah has grey eyes that a very easy answer; she's a weirdo." Without looking Sarah punched Diego in the arm, hard. Diego groaned rubbing his left shoulder "Was that really necessary?" Sarah nodded.

"That must be the front gate." Sarah said nodding towards a single storey building blocking their path. Diego grunted and began picking the pace while the Pokémon race ahead. A further five minutes and the group were inside the building.

A single guard sat at a reception desk and when the group walked up to him he silently produced two sheet of paper and pens, "fill these in please and please return your Pokémon into their pokéballs." He said disinterested focused more on what was happening on his computer than actually guarding the place.

_This is who they have protecting this place. _Diego thought while he filled out the form.

After filling out the forms and retiring the Pokémon, and Diego struggling to get Ferno back in his pokéball, Sarah and Diego walked through the doors leading to the Ruins. Sarah huffed when she saw the Ruins of Alph, "Well this is not what I expected." She said looking around at the pile of rocks and eroded rock structures. She began walking towards a modern building off to the right of the entrance but she stopped and turned back when she noticed Diego wasn't with her instead he was still standing at the entrance, smiling. "Come on, nutcase." Diego began walking with her.

Once inside the building Diego's smile faded. The building had two men in lab coats walking around; talking to people, there was also about ten people, split into four groups. There were bookcases lining one of the walls full of books on the subject of the Ruins of Alph. Diego began walking towards the bookcases as one of the lab coats walked up to Sarah and struck up a conversation.

Diego looked at the bookcases, which reached up to the roof, and began scanning the spines of the books. Some had the title of the book printed on the spine, with titles like: 'Mystery of the Unown', 'Science of the Ruins of Alph' and 'Pokémon Environments: Ruins of Alph', while others had their covers removed so to Diego they were just leather spines. Diego stopped at one of these unlabelled spines. It was a faded dark green colour with a couple of golden stripes at the top of the spine. Diego gently pulled it out and looked it over: it had yellow tinted pages showing off its advanced age and a couple of the golden letters on the cover had faded to a dull yellow. Diego whispered the title aloud; 'The Unown, Friend or Foe?' he opened the book and began flipping through the aged pages until he reached the contents page which he quick scanned over. It had many chapters detailing the physical and social characteristics of the Unown but within the last 100 pages of the book the chapters changed from science to myths. He flicked to a chapter labeled 'Unknown Myths about the Unown.' Diego couldn't help but smile at the wording. The chapter had some tales that Diego quickly scanned over which made the Unown sound like creatures from outer space or other dimensions, _probably written by whack jobs_ Diego thought, he was ready to put the book back when he came across one of the myths labeled: 'The Unown: Ancient Civilization.' Diego scanned the myth and was so deeply immersed in the story that he didn't hear Sarah come up behind him.

"Hey, whatcha reading?" she said causing Diego to seize up in fright. Sarah rested her hand on Diego's shoulder "you alright?" his responds was to snap the book shut and she saw marks that looked like Diego had punctured the covers of the book with his fingertips, before he shoved the book back in its place.

He spun around and looked at her "Are we done here?"

Sarah stared at him with a slightly open mouth for a moment before shaking her head, "do you mean with the Ruins altogether or just here?"

"Just here." Diego answered calmly.

Sarah nodded and Diego dodged around her and began walking towards the door ignoring one of the lab coats who tried to talk to him. Sarah rushed after him. Once outside Diego checked the time before he began heading toward the main ruin, to the right of the research building. Sarah had to jog every couple of steps to keep up with Diego fast pace, she also tried to find out what he was doing but the only response he would give was a simple "just wait.", Sarah must of heard that response three times before they reached the main ruin. Diego walked inside and began weaving between the small groups of people that were taking photos of the some of the marking on the wall and the statues while Sarah moved slowly a few metres behind him making sure she kept him in sight. He passed the last of the groups and began walking down a set of modern stone stairs leading to the underground part of the ruin. Sarah was getting sick of how rude Diego was acting so she ran after him, well jumped down the steps to catch him, by the time Sarah reached him Diego was a metre from the foot of the stairs and was about to walk straight through a group of tourist being shown around.

Sarah grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop "Diego enough what has gotten into you?" Diego whipped around, growling at her and glaring like he was about to rip her to shreds. Sarah just looked at him. Diego blinked and his eyes seemed to soften and Sarah took full advantage of this, "come on, let's look around." She looped her arm around his and led him towards the wall.

The wall was made of some kind limestone that had been surprisingly unweathered by time. Sarah inspected the wall which seemed to be covered by some kind of markings, "this must be the marking the scientist was talking about." she said to Diego, each marking seemed to have a large circular centerpiece and they were set in perfectly straight lines. Sarah was so mesmerized by the marking that she didn't realize that she had raised her hand to touch them until Diego's hand reached out and stopped her.

"No touching." He said nodding towards a sign that had 'NO TOUCHING' on it. "Come on we have to keep moving." He pulled out his Pokénav and tapped it a few times before pocketing it and he began moving towards one of the openings that was positioned far to the right of the staircase. Diego wasn't moving as fast as he was last time but he was moving with the same determination as before. Sarah kept glancing around looking at the walls of marking and looked at a statue that had its head removed. They passed a few more these incomplete statues in a new hallway that Diego had lead them to before Sarah stopped at one that was mostly complete, it was just missing a hand.

Diego came back and stood next to her, tapping his foot impatiently, looking everywhere except the statue. It resembled a Rhydon but it also looked like nothing they had ever seen, the statue seemed to be made of a granite-like material that hadn't eroded much. "What do you think it is?" Sarah said nudging Diego; his respond was a deep throated growl that made Sarah look at him, Diego was glaring at the statue with what seemed to be hatred. Realization dawned on Sarah as she began looking between Diego and the statue, "you know what it is don't you?" she said.

"Time to keep moving." Diego growled as he slipped his arm from Sarah's hold and began moving down the corridor towards another faraway opening. They passed more statues but they all seemed to be the same creature. As they moved further from the staircase the amount of people decreased rapidly until the duo was the only people in the corridor. Sarah also noticed that the lighting had decreased, as back at the staircase there had been plenty of lights hanging from the roof by wires but as they reached the next opening the number of lights decreased to one every twenty metres and they were very low powered leaving a large section of darkness between each.

Diego stopped so suddenly that Sarah walked into him, "stay here and keep watch," he instructed Sarah, "and if anyone comes close shout out, alright." With that he began walking along the far wall, studying it. Sarah leant against the corner of the opening and watched for people coming.

Diego began moving methodically along the back wall, he knew it was here but the wall was a big thing and would take forever to find the marking he was looking for. In fact it didn't take that long to find the marking, it was on the third section of wall from the opening, Diego walked up to it _let's hope I remember how to do this. _he thought.

_Don't sweat it I remember, I think. _the voice said.

Diego stood in front of the marking and put a finger on it before he pressed down. The marking glowed a ghostly electric blue before it shot a pulse of the colour out to the rest of the wall, colouring it blue for a moment before the pulse faded and the wall returned to normal except that one of the markings was still glowing.

_Good now let's find the next one. _the voice said.

_I think I saw it this way. _Diego thought moving back towards the opening.

"Diego what was that?" he heard Sarah call from the opening; she had obviously seen the pulse.

"Don't worry, keep look out." Diego hurried along the wall until he found the next marking which was in a very unfortunate position. It was positioned near the roof of the corridor. Diego began moving closer to the wall to climb it when the voice rang through his head;

_Do not try and climb it if you touch any of the other symbols they'll activate and we won't be recognized._ it said.

"Well how else do you expect me to get it?" Diego growled.

_Jump. _Diego growled at the simple solution and readied for the jump. _Hurry up we don't have that much time to screw around._ Diego growled as he jumped easily reaching the marking and hitting it with a fist. As he landed another pulse shot through the wall and another marking glowed. Before Diego moved off to find the next marking he noticed a low droning sound.

"Is that…" he began.

_Yeah they're starting to wake up, we need to finish this. _the voice finished.

It took Diego a further couple of minutes to hit the rest of the symbols at which the droning had became almost a scream in his ears, because of his enhanced hearing. Diego looked down the corridor when he heard feet thumping against the floor and Sarah ran into the closest pool of light. "Diego where are you? Seriously what the fuck is happening here?" she shouted into the darkness that surrounded her pool.

Diego stepped into the pool of light from the darkness, "Sarah what happened? Why aren't you looking out for people?" he said grabbing her shoulders.

"What happened, the Unown happened, and they came out of nowhere and started attacking me so I ran here. Diego what is going on here?" she said close to tears.

"You'll find out soon, now how far behind you were they?"

"I don't know I didn't look behind me." She began blinking rapidly to push the tears back.

"Alright, Sarah trust me, you'll be fine I will rip them apart before I let them hurt you." pulling her into a hug. Diego looked in the direction Sarah had come and saw the Unown. They came at the pair as a wall, a black staring wall. Diego glanced in the opposite direction and saw another wall approaching. "Stay here and don't move, also don't look at them." He whispered into Sarah ear as he let her go and she looked straight down. Diego walked towards the wall approaching from the direction Sarah had come from. He stopped a few steps from the edge of the pool and stood as straight as he could. A metre from the pool the Unown stopped and watched Diego, hundreds of eyes stared at him and Diego stared back. One of the Unown broke formation and floated over to one of the glowing markings that was next to the pool of light. It buzzed for a moment while it studied the marking before it shot out of Diego's view. The standoff continued until the Unown returned a minute or so later and began droning to one of the other Unown, probably the leader. A moment later the droning abruptly stopped and the leader Unown floated closer to Diego into the pool of light.

"_You have awoken the guards of Alph, you have touched the symbols and you have formed a name that we recognize, do you propose the possibility that you are a Guardian." _The Unown droned at him in a voice that reminded Diego of metal grinding on rock.

"Yes." He replied holding his head higher.

"_Prove it."_ The Unown droned. Diego realized what it was asking. Diego removed his backpack and set it on the ground before he pulled his black t-shirt over his head revealing a tanned, toned, scared body, some of the scars had been there since he was five but the Unown ignored all of these marks and focused on the mark he had on his left chest, above his heart. The marking consisted of three black dots set in a diagonal, two small and one large one, and two squiggly lines acting as borders. It was this marking that marked him as a Guardian and that showed the Unown what he was.

"_The marking is one of a Guardian but that is not enough, what is the name you have placed on the wall?" _the Unown droned.

"Nuparu." Diego announced full of pride.

All of the Unown stopped swaying and bobbing and floated in a stationary position, none of them moving. They lowered themselves down to Diego's hip level reducing the wall to a raised floor.

"_Guardian." _The Unown droned collectively.

Diego stood there looking at all the Unown for a moment before he remembered what he was here to do, "I wish to enter Alph. Where is the entrance?"

The lead Unown rose back to Diego's eye level, "_We will lead you to the entrance but there is a problem."_

"And what is that?" Diego asked raising an eyebrow.

_"The human, it cannot come with us to Alph."_

"She will be coming with us to Alph." Diego said emphasizing the 'she'.

"_But it is a rule; humans are not to find out about Alph, what if she tells other humans." _The Unown droned anxiously.

"I am the Guardian and I say that her seeing Alph is fine, she won't tell anyone." Diego commanded.

The Unown sighed, _"Then follow me." _It began floating around the pool of light through the raised floor of Unown. Diego turned back Sarah, who had stood behind him with her head down the whole time only hearing half the conversation, and gently grabbed onto her forearm.

"Come on, time for you to find out why we came here." Diego whispered into her ear.

"Can I look up?" she said.

"Yeah just stay close." Diego began leading her through the sea of Unown that had parted to let them through, some droned to each other while other looked away as they passed. Diego felt Sarah's fingers begin to pry his hand loose from her forearm, Diego let her go to stop her fidgeting only to feel her hand interlock his.

He glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow, "it felt awkward." She shrugged. Diego just turned back smiling to himself. The lead Unown had reached the far wall of the corridor, the farthest wall from the opening, and was waiting for them, even though they were only a few steps behind it. When Diego stopped in front of the wall the Unown moved itself into a slot on the wall that was its same shape as it and there was a click, like a door unlocking. A section of the wall began to shake and slowly began to slide to into one of the other walls revealing another corridor. He heard Sarah quietly gasp at this. The new corridor looked brand new, there were no chips in the limestone, and there were torches lining the walls of this corridor.

"Come on." Diego tugged Sarah towards the corridor following the Unown, who had removed itself from the slot in the wall. The corridor wasn't very wide and Diego would occasionally knock his shoulders into one of the torches. They were a few metres into the corridor when he heard a grinding sound behind them; he turned his head to see that the wall had returned to its previous position sealing them in the corridor. He heard a small whimper and looked at Sarah who was looking at the wall, scared.

"Everything will be fine." He smiled to her when he caught her eye, he saw a small smile. He turned back and sighed before he called to the Unown, "why did you shut the door?"

"_Security measure, we don't want any humans to find Alph." _It turned and looked at Sarah. "_Not anymore that is." _It turned back and continued down the corridor, "_We will be at Alph soon." _It droned while Diego explained to Sarah.

Diego continued behind the Unown, after a few metres Diego craned his neck to see around the Unown, surprised how much space it took up, and saw that the corridor opened up to a larger area. _Good this corridor is starting to get cramped _he thought. Once out of the corridor the Unown drifted to the side to allow Diego to exit without problem and Diego did the same when it was Sarah's turn. When Sarah saw the space beyond the corridor she gasped and Diego smiled.

In front of them spanned stone footpath that stretched until it was cut off by a large granite building. The building was three storey's height making the roof attached to the ceiling of the cavern. All along the sides of the footpath where granite buildings each varying in height, some were brightly painted while others were left to their natural grey but a majority had scorch marks randomly marking them. Some had vines and plants growing from the windows that had turned feral and wove around the buildings. All the buildings were perfectly cut like they had been made by machines but for all the potential damage that had been dealt to them there was not a single chip or scratch on their surfaces.

The area in front of the group was teeming with life, Unown droned around, some were talking to each other, some were helping another with painting its house, and Diego smiled as he saw a group of smaller Unown charge about under the larger Unown before being chased by one larger Unown droning loudly at the group. The area in front of Diego could have been mistaken for any street in any town in any region except that instead of people there was Unown moving around.

Diego finally heard Sarah breath out and his smile grew, Diego could see that she was astonished by what she was seeing and he was overjoyed to finally be able to share this with someone, he leaned closer to her and whispered "Welcome to Alph, home of the Johto Guardians." into her ear causing her to gasp again look at Diego only to see him smile.

_Welcome home Nuparu. _He thought.

_It's good to be home, Diego, it's good to be home. _The voice said.

* * *

Diego hadn't been in Alph since he was eight and even then he hadn't really been in control, as he had let Nuparu take charge. Diego and Sarah had been ushered to one of the buildings by the Unown who had brought them; the unfortunate thing was that the building was one level down from the entrance. When they had been walking to the building they had passed a lot of Unown and the whole time they had been overjoyed to see their Guardian, it was when they saw Sarah walking behind Diego that the cheers of happiness changed into murmurs of confusion. Diego had reassured her that they were just curious because there hadn't been a human in Alph for about 300 years, so they were just a little confused but mostly curious. His reassurance hadn't helped Sarah, she at the moment using the shower, and now he was starting to regret bring her.

Diego walked back inside from the balcony he had been standing on into a familiar looking bedroom. The room looked a lot like a modern hotel room, minus a TV, any electronic lighting or outlets and there were no dresser or closet, but the room had a certain homey feeling, even though a majority was made of stone. Diego turned as the door to the bathroom opened and Sarah walked out, fully clothed, toweling off her hair. She glanced at Diego before looking away, Diego felt a stab of guilt, and she threw the towel at him.

"Can you dry this for me?" she asked as Diego caught the towel.

Diego pulled his t-shirt over his head and wrapped the towel around his chest and shoulders before raising his body temperature. After a moment of silence Diego spoke, "Sarah if you don't want to be here we can leave."

She looked up at from checking on her Pokémon's pokéballs, Diego had told her not to release them, and stared at him "Diego we're here because you have to be, if I didn't want to be here I would of left before the Unown brought us here.", she when back to checking on her Pokémon.

"But you feel uncomfortable and I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

"I don't feel uncomfortable, I feel confused." She raised her arm indicating to the room around her, "You have shown me a whole different world under mine, a world that makes no sense to me, but that's fine with me because that's part of being your best friend; I tend to find out stuff that most people could search for their whole lives and never find. So yeah I feel a little confused." She sighed.

Diego sighed too before an idea came to him, "What if could tell you about this world, everything major at least." He said excitedly.

Sarah began rummaging around in her bag before she answered, "what do you mean?"

"I could tell you The Story." Sarah looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "granted it's a long story but a good one."

She stopped moving for a moment considering the proposal. "Do I have to do anything?" she asked.

"Just do a bit of walking, that's all." Diego smiled.

"Why do I have to walk don't you know the story?"

"Only fragments, it's a long story."

Sarah stared at Diego and realized that he was really trying to make an effort. "Fine I'll hear this story but if it involves fairies and pixies I'm walking away." She smiled making Diego smile.

* * *

They walked towards the gateway leading to the bottom floor of Alph.

"How big is this place?" Sarah asked looking around.

"You know how big Rustboro is?" Sarah nodded, "well each level is that size and there are four levels and each level is about three storey's height. This place is a pinnacle of Unown engineering." Diego looked at Sarah and she looked astonished. "We're here." Diego announced as they reached the gateway.

"What is this place?" Sarah asked looking around. In front of them was what appeared to be a giant library, there were bookshelves that reached all the way up to the ceiling and each bookshelf was full of books, each bookshelf was made of a solid black material. There were bookshelves reaching into the distance both to the left and right.

"This whole level is dedicated to knowledge and education; Unown are basically a race of nerds. This is the library," Diego explained before pointing down one of the rows, "That way is the schools, like I said nerds, and down that way is the parks/sports arena." Diego pointed to the right of the gateway.

"Sports arena? I thought you said you guys were nerds?"

"Oh we are, sporting is a way to educate your body. Come on this way." He began leading Sarah to the left.

It took them five minutes to reach the far left wall of the level. It was a three storey high wall so Sarah had to crane her neck to see the top but that wasn't what interested her, running from about a storey high to the floor was a block of the same material as the bookshelves, it spanned as far as she could see. The block was covered by the same symbols that had covered the corridors in the Ruins. Now that she thought about it she had seen the symbols all around Alph.

"This is The Story." Diego announced gestured towards the wall.

"Wait, can you read that?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah it's the Guardian alphabet." Diego nodded. "Anyway, where to begin," Diego scanned block for the beginning of The Story. "Ah here it is. Alright you ready because it is one long story?" Sarah nodded.


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or form. Just the plot and OC of this story.**

* * *

"Alright our story begins a very, very long time ago, like millions of billions of years before the first recorded time for humans. Back then this planet was nothing but a barren wasteland; no trees, no water, no land, just molten rock. Now you see there were four beings that existed around this time, four brothers, and they just existed no story of their origin I guess… well it doesn't say what happened but anyway, these four brothers had names: the eldest brother was called Mata Nui, being of life he was said to be the leader because you know with age comes knowledge, the second brother was known as Makuta, being of darkness and evil he got the short straw I guess, the third being was Metru Nui, being of creativity, and the youngest brother was called Toa Takanuva, being of light and the best fighter of the four.

"Now not everything was fine because you see Makuta was jealous of Mata Nui ability over life and how the other two brothers followed him. So anyway, one day Mata Nui had a longing to use his abilities for something, to be able to create something, so that is what he did. He created seventeen beings, now these beings were weaker than the four brothers just keep that in mind, anyway these seventeen beings were created but the aid of Metru Nui, to make them think and be creative. These being also represented the seventeen types of Pokémon that we know today; there was a being of Fire, Ice, Water, Bug all of them. Now we don't know what the name Mata Nui gave to them is but we Guardians call them the Titans. Now the Titans were taught by Toa Takanuva how to fight, taught by Metru Nui how to think and Mata Nui taught them everything else but Makuta decide he didn't want anything to do with the Titans, he saw them as abominations.

"After a while the Titans grew bored of having all these abilities but nothing to use them on and they requested somewhere where they could rule over, Mata Nui, being a good father, said yes and the Titans chose some planet, our planet. So with the aid of the Water and Ice Titans Mata Nui cooled the planet until it was habitable, then the Titans, with help from three of the four brothers, began shaping our Earth. They created continents, raised the seas and oceans and after the initial 'Earth' was created the Titans turned their focus onto the landscape and they began building habitats. Now this isn't a story about how the Earth we know now was created in a few hours, the Earth looked very different from how it looks now, back then there were rainforests right next to deserts right next to ice fields, which is not geographically possible, so yeah.

"Anyway, while the Titans were busy making habitats Mata Nui began creating again, he began creating being that had very specific job to do, these beings were brought into existence with the aid of the Titans using the Titans own typings. These new creations were the first 'Pokémon' the Legendaries; they had to guard this planet from anything and everything. Now back then there were a lot more Legendaries, at least one for every type but I'm getting ahead of myself.

"Now at this point the Titans were overjoyed to have a home to call their own, but once again they grew bored and for once so did Mata Nui, so they began forging again. This time they were making a sort of minion, so to speak, and these 'minions' became the base model for present life on our Planet. After these 'minions' were created the Titans began a type of blood sport between each other, what is was we aren't quite sure, but it occupied the Titans for a long time, enough time for Mata Nui to begin another project.

"He began forging the seeds for life on this planet after the minions the Titans had made. Now these seeds weren't actually seeds they were things like bacteria and stuff. These seeds would later grow into the Pokémon fossils that we have discovered; things like Kabutops. And with the aid of Metru Nui he made these seeds intelligent and thought filled before he released them into the waters of Earth. At this point a new Legendry was made; one that was supposes to hold all the DNA of all the life on Earth both at the time and for the foreseeable future, Mew.

"See at this point everything seemed happy, the Titans were happy, the brothers were happy, everyone was happy but that isn't quite true. You see, Makuta was still jealous of his older brother so he had began undoing all the work that Mata Nui had done with the Titans. Makuta began to feed bad thoughts into their minds, probably things like killing each other or killing Mata Nui. After a while these thought began to take hold in the Titans' minds and they began plotting to overthrow Mata Nui and take his abilities. It wasn't long after this that Makuta began plotting with the Titans to help the coup. It wasn't long after this that the battle began.

"The Guardians aren't quite sure how it started but the records tell us that the Titans attacked Mata Nui. But the records also tell us that Mata Nui never fought the Titans but instead he had Metru Nui and Toa Takanuva fight them for him, as we presume that Mata Nui would not hurt his own 'children', so instead apparently Mata Nui fought the legions of minions that the Titans had sent as an army, which he probably destroyed. But the Titans defeated the two younger brothers, but did not kill them, so they moved onto Mata Nui but having fought legions upon legions of the Titans minions he was weakened. This fight didn't last long as Mata Nui would not greatly damage his children and once the battle was over the Titans stood victorious. But there was a problem with their plan: they couldn't actually kill Mata Nui, so they got Makuta to do it, well at least try. Because before Makuta could kill Mata Nui, Mata Nui used his last bit of strength to imprison Makuta and the Titans in the centre of our planet but in doing so he also chained himself to the centre of the Earth. The two younger brothers were left where they lay and didn't become chained to the prison. You see the centre of our planet is nothing more than a prison; the Guardians call it 'Fylasel'.

"In the after mass of this battle the world didn't look like it had before the battle; forests and jungles were reduced to ash and rubble, sea dried up, the number of the original Legendaries had been cut down to the number we know now. The world was basically dead but also it wasn't because in the small areas that still retained life there were the seeds that Mata Nui had planted. The two free brothers withdrew from our planet but they did return once thing began to evolve. It was something like a billion years after this point that humans recording has reached, after that you should know the story.

"Ah also it was when intelligent life began to develop that Mata Nui created a new Legendary, he apparently could use his abilities even from in Fylasel. This was when Arceus was created; he was made to be a vessel for Mata Nui that would enable him to oversee development of the Earth while still being chained up in Fylasel. So in fact Arceus is the youngest Legendary around.

"And that concludes the first part of The Story. Now do you want to continue or head back to grab some food?"

"Nah, I brought some food with me." Sarah informed unslinging her backpack and pulling out two sandwiches, handing one to Diego.

"So how are you liking The Story so far?" Diego asked munching on the sandwich.

"Is it all true?" Diego smiled before nodding, "I have another question: how do you know all this stuff?"

Diego smiled, "you'll find that out soon. Anyway we should get back to it." He said finishing the last of his meal and brushing his hands on his pants.

"Alright where was I?" Diego began moving down the wall, "no don't need that." He would mumble every so often. He finally stopped at a point about a hundred and fifty metres down from where they had left off.

Sarah interrupted Diego before he could start talking, "ahh Diego, I think you missed a part of the story."

"I know but there are some parts that I would you prefer you not to know about." Sarah looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Diego let out a sigh, "let's just that Guardians weren't always as… protective as we are now. Especially towards humans."

"Anyway, this is that part I want you to hear; so after a few billion years after the battle between Mata Nui and the Titans life was as we know of it nowadays, but this time was still a few thousand of years ago. So basically humans were still primitive. There lived three groupings of life, as you know; the Humans, the Pokémon and the Guardians. Now what you don't know is that at this point humans and Pokémon were still closely related."

"Wait what do you mean by 'closely related'?" Sarah interrupted.

"Well you see humans are just Pokémon that have evolved away from their Pokémon roots. Once upon a time, we were all the same. Humans have just evolved onto their own branch of the evolutionary tree, away from Pokémon and Guardians.

"Anyway, the world was living in harmony with all of its creatures and the creatures lived in a majority of harmony with each other, there were still fights between the groups. So back then there wasn't just the Guardian, there were Guardians, we use to be as plentiful as humans. We lived in villages and clans from the northern cape of Sinnoh all the way to the Sevii Islands, we spanned the whole globe. We had cities like this one in each region. We thrived in whatever habitat there was. It was the golden age for us.

"There is also something I should mention; back in that time Guardians were different from what I am today. They looked completely different; they walked around in our natural skin, what we really look like. Also back then Guardian were born with their typings so they didn't have a choice in what they could control but each typing was tailored to the habitat in which they lived. For example; the Lake of Rage here in Johto, that place has nothing but Gyaradoses and back then there were two clans that lived there, one that was Water- and Flying-type and one that was Dragon- and Water-type, they lived in moderate harmony with the Gyaradoses. Another example, in areas where there was snow, there was always an Ice-type clan. It was how we were back then.

"But anyway I'm getting away from my story, you see the Guardians were suppose to evolve along a… well I'm not sure how we were suppose to evolve because once Mata Nui saw the amount of potential that we had as a species he began to direct our evolution in a certain direction, the direction of the Guardians. He used Arceus and Mew to manipulate our DNA into the characteristics that he saw useful for the job he had in mind, we were suppose to protect the world from the Titans if they ever got out of Fylasel. Through Arceus he taught us everything, how to fight, literacy, numbers, everything, he even told us The Story, that's how we know what happened. He crafted us into the prefect race; we were prepared to throw everything we had at a threat.

"For generations we lived under Mata Nui's laws. We didn't follow him blindly of course, we were lead by seventeen Guardians, the very first to be changed by Mata Nui, they are known as the Ancients, one of them for each typing, just like the Titans. Now they weren't ruler or over controlling priests they were leaders, they travelled the regions visiting each clan. They are impossibly old, like thousands of years old, and they are still alive, still leading the Guardians.

"Now this is the part that changed everything. One day Mata Nui looked at the Earth and realized something; it couldn't support the three species at their current growth rates, so something had to change. So he sent Arceus down to talk with the Ancients and Arceus told them the problem but he also gave this solution: one of the species must be removed, either Pokémon or Humans or Guardians. Now we aren't sure what he meant by this, why he came to us for a decision, he could have gone to the Pokémon. Some say that Mata Nui was hinting towards us to exterminate one of the other species, we could have, we were strong enough, a mass execution, mass extinction. But we couldn't destroy a species we held life so highly that we felt bad when we killed something to eat. So we took the alternate solution. The Ancients sent messengers out to every clan of Guardians to tell them of the decision and the place to gather before calling Arceus back. It was the Ancient of Dragon who told Arceus the solution; the Guardians would remove themselves from the equation so that the other species would survive. Thousands of Guardians gathered in one city in each regions; Alph in Johto, Solaceon in Sinnoh, Clowatu in Hoenn, and other cities. We all gathered and that was when the Guardians were removed, families, friends, clans all removed, painlessly of course.

"But that wasn't true, the Guardians didn't die instead we were changed, changed into the Unown. All except one, one that became the very first Guardian. You see Mata Nui was so moved by how we had selflessly given ourselves for the survival of the other species he rewarded us with a new form, we became Pokémon. But he also couldn't let all the work he had done to make us prefect go to waste so he created the Guardian, a being that would look like a human but inside would be the spirit of a Guardian, someone who would look after the world in the Guardians absences. It was the perfect compromise for the situation, one of the species was removed for the survival of the other two, the Guardians were given a new life as the Unown and there was still a being to protect the Earth.

"This was the beginning of a line of Guardians that would span the ages, a line that would protect the Earth and its inhabitants even from themselves, if necessary. These events lead to me and all the Guardians before me and the ones to come. Even though a small fraction of Pokémon know of the Guardian existence and we have basically become a very unknown myth for humans, the Guardian species is still the greatest force on the planet. And by the way, if I wanted to I could bring them all back, an army of Guardians." Diego smiled.

"Did I forget anything?" he asked Nuparu, turning to the wall.

_No I think you got the basic story, just like how I told you. _the voice echoed back to him.

"Good," Diego turned back to Sarah, "how did you like it? Pretty interesting right?"

"Is that all true?" Diego nodded, "that's incredible. They just gave themselves up for our survival, just like that."

Diego nodded again, "it was our duty and that is something that we hold very highly. In fact it's one of the Three Virtues; Unity, Duty and Destiny."

Sarah grunted and looked down at the ground, deep in thought. "Come on time to head back and time for me to go visit some of the Ancients, and yes some reside here in Alph."

* * *

They stayed in Alph until Diego had taken care of all of the things he had to do. When they left it turned out that they had in fact stayed in Alph for three and a half days, much to Sarah's annoyance. After signing out of the Ruins they continued their journey down Route 32 towards Azalea Town.

* * *

**And thus explains the background to the Guardian race, hope you liked it.**

**also if you wish to see the marking on Diego's chest I'll put it up in my profile.**

**PS. if anyone can figure out where the name of the Brothers came from, nice.**

**and I don't own the company where the names are from i just always liked them.**

**PSS. review please.**


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